AG Dr. Julia Jellusova

Research focus:

The overarching goal of our studies is to gain a better understanding of how cell metabolism and signaling are integrated in normal and malignant B cells. Naïve B cells represent a metabolically quiescent population of cells. Upon activation, B cells rapidly change their metabolic profile to meet the biosynthetic and energetic needs of proliferation. One aspect of our studies is to elucidate how different signaling pathways contribute to the regulation of B cell metabolism and to analyze how dysregulated metabolism affects the humoral immune response. In a second line of investigation, we are focusing on analyzing how changes in the metabolic microenvironment shape B cell fate and function. Our ultimate goal is to identify metabolic vulnerabilities that could be therapeutically exploited in autoimmunity or cancer.