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SUMMARY:Good and Evil Plasma Cells: Guardians & Saboteurs of Immunity - Dr
  Dinis Calado\, Senior Group Leader\, Immunity and Cancer Laboratory\, the
  Francis Crick Institute
DTSTART:20260430T150000Z
DTEND:20260430T160000Z
UID:TALK239398@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Liat Churley
DESCRIPTION:This Cambridge Immunology Network Seminar will take place on *
 Thursday 30th April 2026*\, starting at *4:00pm*\, in the Ground Floor Lec
 ture Theatre\, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre (JCBC)\n\n*Speaker*: Dr Din
 is Calado\, Senior Group Leader\, Babraham Institute and Francis Crick Ins
 titute\n\n*Biography*: Dinis Calado is a Senior Group Leader at the Franci
 s Crick Institute and Babraham Institute\, where his research investigates
  how the immune system generates long-lasting protection against infection
  and vaccination\, and how the pathways that sustain protective immunity c
 an\, when dysregulated\, drive cancer development\, particularly in later 
 life. Originally from Portugal\, Dinis earned his Biochemistry degree from
  the University of Coimbra and his PhD in Molecular Immunology from the Gu
 lbenkian Institute for Science and University of Lisbon. He then moved to 
 the United States for postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School\, fo
 llowed by work at the Max Delbrück Center in Germany as a Special Fellow 
 of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society\, investigating the molecular and cellu
 lar mechanisms that govern B cell differentiation and lymphoma development
  from germinal centres\, specialised structures in lymphoid tissues centra
 l to antibody responses.\n\nIn 2013\, Dinis established his research group
  in London at the Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute\, which
  became part of the Francis Crick Institute in 2015. Promoted to Senior Gr
 oup Leader in 2020\, he led the Immunity and Cancer Laboratory. Following 
 completion of the Crick’s 6+6 career development programme\, he joined t
 he Babraham Institute as a Senior Group Leader in September 2025. He curre
 ntly holds a joint appointment between Babraham and the Crick Institute\, 
 continuing to advance and expand his research programme.\n\nDinis’s rese
 arch is supported by UK and international funders\, including the BBSRC\, 
 MRC\, Cancer Research UK\, Blood Cancer UK\, and the Institute for Follicu
 lar Lymphoma Innovation. He serves on expert review panels\, including the
  CRUK Discovery Research Committee\, the MRC Infections and Immunity Board
 \, the Blood Cancer UK Expert Panel\, and the canSERV EU-Horizon programme
  Independent Review Board.\n\n*Title*: Good and Evil Plasma Cells: Guardia
 ns & Saboteurs of Immunity\n\n*Abstract*: Plasma cells (PCs) are the engin
 e of antibody immunity\, capable of guarding us for decades\; however\, in
  some cancers these cells sabotage immune defence. I will share two storie
 s. First\, using a PC-targeted lineage-tracing and single-cell approach\, 
 we map a continuum of PC lifespans\, from short to intermediate to long-li
 ved\, imprinted early in lymphoid tissues and sustained in bone-marrow nic
 hes. Booster vaccination\, by re-engaging memory B cells\, tilts this bala
 nce toward durable\, long-lived PCs while curbing intermediate-lived cells
  typical of priming. This provides a mechanistic rationale for booster ben
 efits and a practical framework to judge “PC quality\,” not just antib
 ody quantity. Second\, in immune-cold triple-negative breast cancer\, we i
 dentify an expansion of extrafollicular (EF)-PCs that functions as an anti
 body-independent checkpoint in tumour-draining lymph nodes. These EF-PCs d
 erail dendritic cell activation and migration\, blunting CD8⁺ T-cell pri
 ming. Removing this EF-PC brake\, genetically\, pharmacologically\, or wit
 h antibodies\, reconnects dendritic cells to T-cells and reinvigorates ant
 i-tumour responses. Together\, these findings reveal the twin faces of PCs
 : guardians that encode long-term protection\, and saboteurs that enforce 
 immune silence in cancer. Understanding\, and programming\, PC fate offers
  a path to longer-lasting vaccines and to converting immune-cold tumours i
 nto immune-responsive disease.\n\n\n*Host*: Maike De La Roche\, CRUK\n\nRe
 freshments will be available following the seminar.
LOCATION: Lecture Theatre\, Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre\, Cambridge Bi
 omedical Campus
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