FIONA RASO

PhD, Immunology and Microbiology, UMass Chan Medical School, 2024

CRI Irvington Postdoctoral Fellow

My doctoral research focused on elucidating the signaling and migratory requirements for mucosal B cells. Despite the known importance of IgA antibodies in both gut homeostasis and oral vaccination efficacy, little was known about how germinal center B cells undergo selection into IgA+ plasma cells or where long-lived memory B cells persist in the gut. In Peyer’s patches, we defined a novel role for the IgA B cell receptor in promoting germinal center fitness through stronger BCR signaling, increased Tfh help, and heightened resistance to FasL-induced apoptosis. We also found IgA BCR expression is required for subsequent differentiation into both memory B cells and gut-homing plasma cells.

In the Littman lab, I am studying how tolerizing DCs may be altered during inflammation and the migratory receptors they utilize to reach the mesenteric lymph nodes where they prime pTregs that help maintain large intestine homeostasis and prevent allergies. My long-term research goals are to define the interactions between B cells and T cells that together promote tolerance and tissue homeostasis while preventing disease and infection in the small intestine and large intestine. 

Publications

1.    Raso, F., Liu, S., Willett, M. J., Barton, G., Mayer, C. T., Acharya, M., Muppidi, J. R., Marshak-Rothstein, A. & Reboldi, A. Antigen receptor signaling and cell death resistance controls intestinal humoral response zonation. Immunity (2023). doi:10.1101/2023.03.16.532481

2.    Canales-Herrerias, P., Uzzan, M., Seki, A., Czepielewski, R. S., Verstockt, B., Livanos, A. E., Raso, F., Dunn, A., Dai, D., Wang, A., Al-taie, Z., Martin, J., Laurent, T., Ko, H. M., Tokuyama, M., Tankelevich, M., Meringer, H., Cossarini, F., Jha, D., Krek, A., Paulsen, J. D., Taylor, M. D., Nakadar, M. Z., Wong, J., Erlich, E. C., Mintz, R. L., Onufer, E. J., Helmink, B. A., Sharma, K., Rosenstein, A., Ganjian, D., Chung, G., Dawson, T., Juarez, J., Yajnik, V., Cerutti, A., Faith, J. J., Suarez-Farinas, M., Argmann, C., Petralia, F., Randolph, G. J., Polydorides, A. D., Reboldi, A., Colombel, J.-F. & Mehandru, S. Gut-associated lymphoid tissue attrition associates with response to anti-. Sci. Immunol. 9, eadg7549 (2024).

3.    Trindade, B. C., Ceglia, S., Berthelette, A., Raso, F., Howley, K., Muppidi, J. R. & Reboldi, A. The cholesterol metabolite 25-hydroxycholesterol restrains the transcriptional regulator SREBP2 and limits intestinal IgA plasma cell differentiation. Immunity 54, 2273-2287.e6 (2021).

4.    Acharya, M., Raso, F., Sagadiev, S., Gilbertson, E., Kadavy, L., Li, Q. Z., Yan, M., Stuart, L. M., Hamerman, J. A. & Lacy-Hulbert, A. B Cell αv Integrins Regulate TLR-Driven Autoimmunity. J Immunol 205, ji1901056 (2020).

5.    Albright, A. R., Kabat, J., Li, M., Raso, F., Reboldi, A. & Muppidi, J. R. TGFβ signaling in germinal center B cells promotes the transition from light zone to dark zone. J Exp Medicine 216, 2531–2545 (2019).

6.    Yang, J. D., Mott, D., Sutiwisesak, R., Lu, Y.-J., Raso, F., Stowell, B., Babunovic, G. H., Lee, J., Carpenter, S. M., Way, S. S., Fortune, S. M. & Behar, S. M. Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells differ in their capacity to recognize infected macrophages. Plos Pathog 14, e1007060 (2018).

7.    Raso, F., Sagadiev, S., Du, S., Gage, E., Arkatkar, T., Metzler, G., Stuart, L. M., Orr, M. T., Rawlings, D., Jackson, S., Lacy-Hulbert, A. & Acharya, M. αv Integrins regulate germinal center B cell responses through noncanonical autophagy. J Clin Invest 128, 4163–4178 (2018).

8.    Acharya, M., Sokolovska, A., Tam, J. M., Conway, K. L., Stefani, C., Raso, F., Mukhopadhyay, S., Feliu, M., Paul, E., Savill, J., Hynes, R. O., Xavier, R. J., Vyas, J. M., Stuart, L. M. & Lacy-Hulbert, A. αv Integrins combine with LC3 and atg5 to regulate Toll-like receptor signaling in B cells. Nat Commun 7, 10917 (2016).