Center for Metabolomic Studies Seminar Series Featuring Erika Pearce, PhD

Presentation: “Mitochondrial Shape-Shifting in the T Cell Response”

Speaker: Erika Pearce, PhD
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor
Johns Hopkins University

Abstract:
Dynamic changes in mitochondrial membrane morphology are key to sustain organelle function, including processes such as mitochondrial respiration and TCA cycle metabolism. It however remains unclear whether remodeling of mitochondrial membranes orchestrates differentiation or function in CD4+ T cells.  How mitochondrial membrane remodeling influences CD4+ T cell metabolism and effector functions will be discussed.

About the Speaker:
Dr. Pearce obtained her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2005 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she studied the regulation of T cell responses during infection. During her postdoctoral studies, also at the University of Pennsylvania, she began her research into how cellular metabolic processes govern immune responses to infection and cancer. She launched her independent career in 2009, holding faculty positions at the Trudeau Institute in NY and then Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She moved her research group to Europe in 2015 to become a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany. In 2018 she was awarded the Gottfreid Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the DFG for her work on immunometabolism. In 2021 she became a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Her work continues to investigate the connection between metabolism and cell function.