This summer we welcomed two new students in the lab!
Chiara Urban came to us for an Erasmus+ internship to get a heads-up to the world of B cells and microscopy before joining Julia Jellusova’s lab at TranslaTUM, Munich, as a PhD student later this winter.
Nil Fernández Mató, currently performing his BSc studies at the University of Barcelona, came to Turku as an Erasmus+ exchange student and joined our lab to help us in validation of various target proteins obtained in our proteomic studies.
Our work on identifying new players in B cell activation by proximity proteomics is out!
We used APEX2-mediated proximity biotinylation proteomics method to map the protein dynamics at the vicinity of the BCR during the first 15 minutes of antigenic activation. From the newly identified proteins, we demonstrated a role of SUMOylation in BCR signaling, identifying SUMO as a novel posttranslational modification regulating early B cell activation.
Check it out in here.
We are pleased to announce that our latest book chapter entitled “Isolation of the B Cell Immune Synapse for Proteomic Analysis”, has been published in The Immune Synapse: Methods and Protocols.
So if you are interested in testing or adapting the protocol, the method can be download here or you can contact us directly!
Congratulations to the people involved!
Methods Mol Biol. 2023; 2654:393-408. | DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3135-5_25
Finally, we worked out a logo for the lab!!! All the credits go to our new intern Thomy! How cool does it look? 
Congratulations to Diogo for securing a 4-year fellowship from the Finnish Cultural Foundation! Super-duper well done, amazing!
A new intern in the lab! Thomy Garnier from Lyon, France, joined us for a 5-month internship as part of his MSc studies. He is working with Blanca to set-up dSTORM super-resolution imaging.
Congratulations to Blanca and Diogo for securing graduate school funding for the whole 2023 from TuDMM and InFLAMES!
This year’s third PhD defense from our lab was celebrated on September 31st! Congratulations, Marika Runsala (née Vainio), who successfully defended her thesis “Antigen processing and intracellular trafficking in B cells”. We are very grateful for Assoc. Prof. Zhi Jane Chen from the University Oulu , Finland, for accepting our invitation to serve as an opponent of Marika’s defense and guiding an insightful discussion on the topic.
The thesis can be found here.
All the best in the future endeavours, Marika!
Another little bird has spread her wings! Congratulation to our very own PhD graduate from Mattila lab, Sara Hérnandez-Pérez who successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “B Cell Activation and Antibody Responses: The role of vesicle trafficking and Rab GTPases” on August 12th. We extend our warm gratitude to her opponent Professor Balbino Alarcón from Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBMSO-CSIC), Madrid, Spain, for accepting the invitation and providing such an insightful and broad discussion.
The thesis can be found here.
Sara is now starting as a posdoc on Pavel Tolar lab in the University College London – Division of Infection and Immunity (London, UK) to work on IgE BCR signalling and allergic responses.
All the best in the future endeavours!
