Almudena Ramiro - Biography#

Research Interests

Almudena Ramiro studies the biology of B lymphocytes and the antibody immune response. During her post-doctoral training at the Rockefeller University she studied the function of Activation Induced Deaminase (AID) in the diversification of antibodies and in the generation of lymphomagenic chromosome translocations (Nat Immunol 2003, Cell 2004, Nature 2006).

As a PI, she showed that AID is regulated by miR-181b (J Exp Med 2008) and deciphered new mechanisms of AID specificity (J Exp Med 2012, 2018). A related topic concerns the lymphomagenic events associated with the B cell germinal center reaction. Ramiro described an immunosurveillance mechanism that counterbalances AID oncogenic activity (EMBO Mol Med 2015) and showed that AID contributes to intratumoral heterogeneity (PloS Genetics 2021). In addition, she has identified two microRNAs that play a role in germinal center B cell transformation (Blood 2014, 2017). Ramiro also showed the role of microRNAs in autoimmunity (Immunity 2010). In the last years she has found an ageing-associated microRNA that regulates endothelial and heart function (ATVB 2020). Recently, Ramiro has discovered a new atherosclerosis-associated antigen that is a target for atheroprotective antibodies (Nature 2021).

Scientific activities-Commissions of Trust

Ramiro is actively involved in evaluation activities both in Spain and internationally: panel member for institute evaluation, tenures, grants, peer reviewer for Nature, Nature Immunology, etc. Almudena is an outstanding mentor and has supervised 9 PhD students, 9 Master students and >15 summer students. Many of her mentorees are now independent investigators in academia or in biotech companies. In addition, Almudena is genuinely involved in gender equality in science, trying to help female young scientists to acknowledge, trust and value their qualities, skills and intellectual power.

Complete publication list