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Bofill i Soliguer, Margarida
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ICREA Research Professor at IrsiCaixa (Institut de Recerca de la Sida). Life & Medical Sciences
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I trained as a biologist at the University of Barcelona. In 1971, I joint the Immunology Department at the Hospital of Santa Creu i Sant Pau, where I worked as a consultant from 1974 to 1979. In 1980 I joined the Royal Free Hospital (London) where I did my PhD in Immunology. My first contribution in the field was the description of immune cells and their organization in lymphoid organs, and one of my reagents (CD25) is still routinely used worldwide in Kidney transplantation. Simultaneously, a new disease, AIDS, was born. We were the first to realize the impact that this disease had in the destruction of the CD4 T cells followed by the disorganization of lymphoid tissues. In 1996 I was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Pathologists. I became an ICREA Research Professor in 2002. My contribution to science is reflected by an H-index of 39.
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Research Interests
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A successful vaccine stimulates the generation of protective immune T cells. These cells are born in the thymus and emigrate to the rest of the body. Vaccines to HIV have been so far ineffective, because HIV destroys these immune T-cells. We have performed a vaccine trial that shows that the regeneration of the thymus, through the administration of Growth Hormone, can restore the immunity to HIV in adult HIV patients. Our next aim is to find other drugs that have a similar effect on the thymus but are easier to administer.
The IFN-gamma is crutial for the control of intracellular parasites and is produced by activated T cells and NK cells, but the production of IFN gamma by macrophages has been totally ignored. We have shown that macrophages can produce IFN in the presence of IL-12 and IL-18. Furthermore these cells are not susceptible to HIV infection.
We are now focussing on the mechanisms by which IL-12 and IL-18 block HIV infection.
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Key Words
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HIV, Vaccines, IL-12 and IL-18
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