Xenia Ficht

💡Exciting news! Our latest research is now published in @CellCellPress: "Therapeutic potential of co-signaling receptor modulation in hepatitis B" 🚀🧵(1/11) 🔬Using mouse models, we traced the development and fate of dysfunctional CD8+ T cells, showing that hepatocellular priming induces a unique dysfunctional program distinct from classical exhaustion. (2/11) 🌟Key finding: Blocking co-inhibitory receptors like PD-1, CTLA-4, and LAG-3 showed minimal effect. However, activating 4-1BB and OX40 transformed dysfunctional CD8+ T cells into antiviral effectors. (3/11) 📊Prolonged antigenic stimulation leads to a self-renewing, long-lived population of CD8+ T cells with a unique transcriptional profile, including progenitor/stem-like and tissue-resident memory cells. (4/11) 📌In chronic settings, only 4-1BB maintained expression across all dysfunctional subsets, making it a prime candidate for therapeutic intervention in chronic HBV. (5/11) 🧬In HBeAg+ chronic patients, 4-1BB activation showed the highest potential to rejuvenate dysfunctional CD8+ T cells, making it a prime candidate for therapeutic intervention. (6/11) 🔑Our findings suggest that targeting all dysfunctional T cells, rather than only stem-like precursors, holds promise for treating chronic HBV infection. (7/11) 💡Mechanistic insights: 4-1BB activation enhances effector molecule expression and CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity, driving robust antiviral responses. (8/11) 🔍This study provides a comprehensive atlas of the co-signaling receptors induced in dysfunctional HBV-specific CD8+ T cells and reveals potential targets for therapeutic intervention. (9/11) 👏Huge thanks to our incredible team and collaborators, especially @frarro1, @Chiara_Laura91, Micol Ravà, @CaroCKrueger, @FichtMaria, Keigo Kawashima, and @CristianBecc who co-led the study. This work wouldn't be possible without you! (10/11) 📖Dive deeper into our study and its implications for HBV treatment. We're excited to hear your thoughts and engage in discussions! Full paper here: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S00… 💬📚 (11/11) @SanRaffaeleMI @MyUniSR @ERC_Research @AIRC_it @EMBO_YIP @ArmeniseHarvard

Soooo happy to share the results of my PhD project in the @moorlab! The seed and soil hypothesis postulates that metastases will only grow in favorable environments. Here we forget about the seed and focus on the soil. Which factors in the liver promote or suppress seeding? 🧵👇

[2] In our new preprint ISCHIA, that’s what we are doing! We consider this inherent proximity of the transcriptome signal captured on spots as an opportunity to study cell-cell interactions and cellular networks: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Please RT: we have an exciting position for a MSc student in my lab (@moorlab) at @ETH_BSSE: You'll get to use spatial readouts to localize guide RNAs in a resistance screen in the tumor microenvironment. Please get in touch if interested (or forward this to people that might be)

We are excited to share our new preprint about our development of a new #spatialTranscriptomics method (sphere-sequencing) to unveil local tissue microenvironments at single cell resolution! biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… See below the #tweetorial from our very own @handlerkristina 👩‍🔬

Join the Million Advocates for Sustainable Science campaign and demonstrate support for systemic change towards sustainability within the global science funding system. #sign-the-letter" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">sustainablescienceadvocates.org/#sign-the-lett…

I'm super happy our paper is finally published in @SciImmunology  science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… We show the importance of a pathogen first contact in the oral mucosa during infection through the oral route, highlighting the concept of regional specialization of the immune response.

@MirelaKuka @EleonoraSala12 @iannaconelab @MyUniSR Enjoy the meeting!

Happy to share this short review about my favourite memory cells! Thanks again to Špela and @Marc_Veld for the fruitful collabrotation! Heterogeneity of Tissue Resident Memory T cells sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

SNSF strongly condemns the Russian invasion of #Ukraine and will support researchers affected by the war. This includes supporting stays by Ukrainian researchers at Swiss higher education institutions via #ScholarsAtRisk. sohub.io/q772

#Ukraine we are opening two neuroscience scholarships for Ukrainian scientists in distress! "Titanic" priority criteria apply. Please DM me and retweet extensively! Positions already available!

#ScienceForUkraine is looking for organizations/people that are collecting, coordinating information in #Lithuania #Slovenia #Slovakia #Romania #Hungary #Moldova #CzechRepublic #Austria If you have any information on coordinated national initiatives elsewhere, please let us know!

Happy to share our latest study, spearheaded by star postdoc Valeria Fumagalli. Using intravital microscopy in mouse models of HBV infection, we show that group 1 innate lymphoid cells interact closely with HBV-specific CD8+ T cells in the liver 🧵 science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

The difference between doing a project and presenting it. An observation can lead to many avenues of explorations before focus turns to a specific discovery. Presenting it, in a talk / paper, follows inversely, with broad perspectives coming before & after the specific discovery.

@sidaraydin Congrats! Happy to hear you were finally able to move and fingers crossed for the next phase of your career!

I just moved to San Diego and started to work at my dream lab at the University of California San Diego as a postdoc researcher! It feels fantastic to be back on the campus and see all the familiar faces! Time to continue exploring the brain barriers! #UCSD #DanemanLab

Writing or reviewing a manuscript? Watch out for these ten common statistical mistakes ⬇️ elifesciences.org/articles/48175…

@BdeAlbuquerqueJ @AegeanConf Have fun!

Finally! 2nd Oral Mucosal Immunity and Microbiome. @AegeanConf

Thrilled to share our latest publication, now live @ImmunityCP, where we delineate the mechanisms by which hepatocellularly-primed #HBV-specific CD8+ T cells acquire antiviral effector functions following IL-2 administration. @SanRaffaeleMI @MyUniSR sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 🧵

The #liver’s unique #anatomy enables the organ to host a variety of T cells that protect the tissue, but in some cases, can contribute to disease, say Xenia Ficht @FichtMaria, Matteo Iannacone @iannaconelab from @SanRaffaeleMI. Read their Review here: fcld.ly/swmwh02

@s_burgener @iannaconelab @SanRaffaeleMI @MyUniSR @EMBO_YIP @ERC_Research Thanks Sabri! 😁

@iannaconelab @SanRaffaeleMI @MyUniSR @EMBO_YIP @ERC_Research 👏👏👏 @FichtMaria

Ever wondered how T cells exert immune surveillance in the liver? Check out our latest review! Kudos to Xenia Ficht for doing the heavy lifting and to Paolo Montuschi for the beautiful cover! immunology.sciencemag.org/content/5/51/e… @SanRaffaeleMI @MyUniSR @EMBO_YIP @ERC_Research