We are delighted to announce that from December 1, Mahima takes up a Programme Leader position in the MRC PPU to better study the function and regulation of intraepithelial lymphocytes. These are a class of poorly characterised innate-like T cells that reside in the intestinal epithelium. An important focus of Mahima’s laboratory will be to understand how intraepithelial lymphocytes are activated and to define which signalling pathways are involved.

Mahima studied Biological Sciences and Biotechnology at the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS), Pilani in Rajasthan, India. She moved to the Max-Planck Institute of Immunobiology (MPIIB) in Freiburg, Germany to do her PhD. In Wolfgang Schamel’s lab, Mahima solved the long-standing questions of the stoichiometries of the T cell antigen receptors (TCR) complexes, and defined a novel paradigm for how the TCR is activated.

For her postdoc, Mahima moved to CRUK’s London Research Institute, where she commenced her research on intraepithelial lymphocytes in Adrian Hayday’s lab. Funded by both EMBO (2009) and Marie-Curie (2010-12) postdoctoral fellowships, she worked to dissect the role of an intestinal epithelial surface molecule, Btnl1, in immune surveillance. During this time, she also showed a major role for intraepithelial lymphocytes in promoting resistance to intestinal viruses.

In 2013 Mahima moved to the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee to focus on her two research interests – signal transduction and immunology. As an independent investigator with Doreen Cantrell, she uncovered roles for the novel post-translational modification, O-GlcNAc, in T cell lymphomagenesis and T cell development. In parallel, she continued to explore the interactions between intraepithelial lymphocytes and intestinal epithelial cells, using powerful mass-spectrometry based approaches to identify novel molecular interactions.

Mahima is very excited about setting up her own laboratory and commented “It’s a great opportunity to begin my lab in this dynamic and stimulating research environment.” Dario Alessi, Director of the MRC-PPU stated “we are delighted that we have been able to attract Mahima to the MRC-PPU. Understanding the function of intraepithelial lymphocytes which continuously patrol our intestinal cells will reveal new biology of relevance to better understanding and treating diseases such as intestinal immune disorders and cancer. Mahima also has exciting plans to dissect the signalling pathways that control intraepithelial lymphocyte immune responses that tie in nicely with a lot of other research that is on-going in the MRC-PPU.”

For more information on Mahima and her research interests check out her webpages on the MRC-PPU website by clicking here.