Fellow

Gillian Griffiths

Sponsored by Emmanuel Derivery

Gillian Griffiths

My group collaborates with Emmanuel Derivery’s group and James Manton with a shared interest in cell polarity and high-resolution imaging. The focus of my group at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research is the remarkable changes in intracellular polarity that occur as cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) recognise and destroy cancer cells. As CTLs are much smaller and more dynamic than many of the cell lines used in cell biological studies, they present additional challenges for live cell imaging. Combining our expertise in CTLs with the Derivery group’s expertise in imaging and micropatterning, we aim to uncover the mechanisms of cell polarity that control the rapid and dynamic polarisation of organelles as CTLs form an immunological synapse and destroy the cancer targets.

Selected Publications

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes require transcription for infiltration but not target cell lysis.Richard AC, Ma CY, Marioni JC, Griffiths GMEMBO Rep 24(11): e57653 (2023)
Ectocytosis renders T cell receptor signaling self-limiting at the immune synapse.Stinchcombe JC, Asano Y, Kaufman CJG, Böhlig K, Peddie CJ, Collinson LM, Nadler A, Griffiths GMScience 380(6647): 818-823 (2023)
Mitochondrial translation is required for sustained killing by cytotoxic T cells.Lisci M, Barton PR, Randzavola LO, Ma CY, Marchingo JM, Cantrell DA, Paupe V, Prudent J, Stinchcombe JC, Griffiths GMScience 374(6565): eabe9977 (2021)
PIP5 Kinases Regulate Membrane Phosphoinositide and Actin Composition for Targeted Granule Secretion by Cytotoxic Lymphocytes.Gawden-Bone CM, Frazer GL, Richard AC, Ma CY, Strege K, Griffiths GMImmunity 49(3): 427-437.e4 (2019)