People
Margarita Dominguez-Villar, PhD
Principal Investigator
Marga Dominguez-Villar is a Senior Lecturer in Immunology in the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London. She obtained her PhD from the University of Cadiz (Spain) and her postdoctoral training from both Harvard Medical School and Yale School of Medicine. Her laboratory investigates the mechanisms that control innate and adaptive immune responses in human disease, with a particular focus on T cell responses and regulatory T cell function/dysfunction in autoimmune and infectious diseases.
Lab Members
Allison K. Maher
PhD student
I am currently a PhD student in the Dominguez-Villar lab. Before this, I did a 4-year integrated Master’s Degree in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. I am currently on the Wellcome Trust’s “Molecular and Cellular Basis of Infection” PhD scheme, which included a 1 year MRes Degree before starting my main PhD project. The focus of my PhD project is studying CD4+ T cell dysfunction during HTLV-1 infection. Outside the lab I love staying active and love rock climbing, touch rugby, and tennis.
Nicolas Giang
Postdoctoral Associate
I have a PhD in Cellular Immunology and a Doctorate of Pharmaceutical Sciences that I both obtained at the Paul Sabatier University of Toulouse (France). Here in the MDV lab, I am working on the plasticity of Tregs in autoimmune disease and particularly the impact of the sphingosine signalling pathway on the generation of Th1-like Tregs in multiple sclerosis. Outside the lab, I like to watch or play football, and any (video, board or escape) games that involves logical thinking.
Emma Jones
PhD student
Rachel Coulombeau
PhD student
I am a PhD in the Dominguez-Villar lab. Previously a medical student, I realised during an intercalated MSc in Immunology that I wanted to dedicate myself entirely to research. Here in the MDV lab, I study the role of autocrine TNF in the maintenance of Treg identity in homeostasis and in multiple sclerosis. Outside of work, I love to read fiction, go bouldering or exercise with friends, learn about art and philosophy, and express my creativity in writing.
Maja Witowska
Research Assistant
Before I joined the MDV lab as a Research Assistant, I worked at the Novo Nordisk Research Centre in Oxford. While there, I assisted on a project on pancreatic beta cell de-differentiation and became proficient at production of CRISPR-Cas9 viral vectors. During my MSc in Integrated Immunology at University of Oxford, I characterised the responses of Tfh cells to inform HIV-1 vaccine design. Now, to combine my interest in autoimmunity and T lymphocytes, I want to explore Treg plasticity in an inflammatory environment e.g., in T1DM and MS. Outside the lab, I love to knit and paint, and occasionally do some weightlifting at the gym.
Former Lab Members
Marine de Marcken, Research assistant (2012-2018, Yale University); 1st year medical student at University of Connecticut.
Adam Beckman, undergraduate student (2013-2016, Yale University); Special advisor to the Surgeon General of the United States of America.
Saige L. Pompura, PhD student (2014-2020, Yale University, co-supervision: Dr. David Hafler); Lecturer at Harvard University
Tomokazu Sumida, Postdoctoral associate (2014-2017, Yale University, co-supervision: Dr. David Hafler); Instructor at Yale School of Medicine
Ann Caroline Danielsen, Research assistant (2015-2017, Yale University)
Alexandra Kitz, Postdoctoral associate (2015-2018, Yale University); Laboratory supervisor, Wren laboratories (Branford, USA).
Maria Wester Trejo, Visiting master's student from Leiden University, Netherlands (2016, Yale University); PhD student at Leiden University
Mahrukh Shahid, Undergraduate student (2016-2018, Yale University)
Khuswant Dhaliwal, Undergraduate student (2016-2018, Yale University)
Liliana E Lucca, Postdoctoral associated (2016-2020, Yale University, co-supervision: Dr. David Hafler); Senior postdoct IPT Toulouse (France)
Abdulrahman Al-Mohammad, Visiting medical student from the University of Cambridge, UK (2017, Yale University)
Emily HG Chan, Visiting medical student from University of Cambridge, UK (2018, Yale University)
Syed Aymaan Zaheer, MSc student (2018-2019, Imperial College London); Research technician Amit Awasthi lab, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (New Delhi, India)
Andy A. Zhou, MSc student (2018-2019, Imperial College London)
Claudia Selck, Postdoctoral Research Associate (2019-2021, Imperial College London); Pre-clinical Scientist, T-knife Therapeutics.
Svenja Nopper, Visiting MSc student from University of Heidelberg, Germany (2019-2020, Imperial College London); PhD student at the University of Zurich
Benjamin Cameron, MSc student (2019-2020, Imperial College London); Research assistant, Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (Philadelphia, US).
Sophie Guan, Undergraduate (BMB) student (2020-2021, Imperial College London); MSc in Immunology student at Imperial College London.
Juanjo Gallego, Visiting PhD student from INCLIVA institute, Spain (2021-2022, Imperial College London)