Profile
Dr James obtained a BSc in Immunology from King’s College London in 2002. She completed a PhD on the immune mechanisms of allergen immunotherapy, under the supervision of Professor Stephen Durham (National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London). She then returned to King’s College London for post-doctoral training under the supervision of Professor Mark Peakman (Division of Immunology, Infection & Inflammatory Disease) working on a study of peptide immunotherapy for Type 1 Diabetes. In 2009 Dr James joined the laboratory of Professor Hannah Gould and Professor Brian Sutton (Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics) to study antibody responses in allergy. Dr James joined the Centre for Immunobiology in the Blizard institute in 2016 as a Group Leader and Lecturer in Immunology. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021 and Reader in Immunology in 2024.
Research
Research Interests:
The B cell group at the Blizard Institute aims to understand how B cell memory is regulated and maintained. Of particular interest is how different microenvironments influence B cell development and antibody production. We use a combination of cellular, molecular, biophysical and computational approaches to analyse B cells and antibody repertoires in human blood and tissue samples. Our goal is that by understanding how B cell memory is induced and maintained we can develop strategies that manipulate antibody responses for therapeutic benefit.
Current group members:
Adekunle Adeniran: Ade joined the B cell group as a PhD student in 2022. His project has investigated the role of EBV infection in multiple sclerosis by characterising viral load, EBV genomes and B cell repertoires in patients with MS compared to healthy controls. In addition, Ade has optimised a method to generate spontaneous lymphoblastoid cell lines from peripheral blood. Prior to joining the B cell group, Ade completed an MSc at Imperial College London where he worked on a project investigating SP100 inhibition by EBNA-LP in EBV infection.
Delphine Thenet: Delphine joined the B cell group as a Postdoctoral Researcher in 2024 to work on a project looking to understand the B cell response to IL-5 in Nasal polyps in collaboration with industry. The project aims to assess the effect of IL-5 treatment/blockade on the BCR repertoire of tissue resident B cells. Dr Thenet completed her PhD at Kingston University London studying radiation-induced chromosome aberration in interphase chromosomes using confocal microscopy and 3D imaging. After a break, she returned to academia to do some work on characterising the underlying mechanisms leading to Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). She later joined the Blizard Institute to do IBD research within Prof. Tom MacDonald’s team before joining the James’ lab.
Ivy Akehurst: Ivy joined the B cell group in 2024 as a PhD student, her project will examine how chronic inflammation in the upper airway influences the phenotype and function of tissue resident memory B cells. Prior to joining the B cell group, Ivy completed her undergraduate degree at Queen Mary University of London and went on to obtain an MRes at King’s College London where she characterised neutralising epitopes on Hantaviruses using antibody cloning.
Jantarika Arora: Reena joined the B cell group as a Postdoctoral Researcher in 2023, her project is examining tissue-resident memory cells in Nasal polyps, with a focus on the development of IgE responses. Reena is applying computational approaches to integrate and analyse single cell RNA sequencing and bulk antibody repertoire sequencing datasets. Dr Arora completed her PhD at Mahidol University in Thailand. Her PhD research focused on understanding the transcriptional dynamics of immune cell responses to dengue virus infection throughout clinically distinct time points, alongside the development of computational analysis approaches for single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets.
Sonay Beyatli: Dr Beyatli has been working as an Academic Clinical Fellow at the Blizard Institute (B cell group), since August 2022, and as a respiratory specialist registrar in North East London Deanery. She graduated from Acibadem University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey in 2017. She worked at the University of Iowa Hospital Clinics in the USA as a research assistant prior moving to the UK. She was awarded her MRCP(UK) nominal in 2022 and she further completed a PGCert degree in Clinical Research (Queen Mary University of London) in 2024. She is an experienced NHS Doctor with a demonstrated history of working in the United Kingdom, skilled in internal medicine with a subspeciality of respiratory/pulmonology and interest in immunobiology research on B cells and asthma. She is a co-author at Medset educational group. She completed her internal medicine residency in Yorkshire & the Humber Deanery. She is a member of Royal College of Physicians of London, British Thoracic Society, European Respiratory Society and British Society for Immunology.
Past group members
Emily Bessell (now a PhD student at University of Bern)
Hamish King (now a Group Leader at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Lou Herman (now a post-doctoral fellow at Barts Cancer Institute)
Publications
Key Publications
Bessell E, Finlay RE, James LK, Ludewig B, Harris NL, Krebs P, Hepworth MR, Dubey LK ( 2024 ) . Stromal cell and B cell dialogue potentiates IL-33-enriched lymphoid niches to support eosinophil recruitment and function during type 2 immunity . Cell Reports vol. 43 , ( 8 )
10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114620
Kariyawasam HH, James LK ( 2023 ) . Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps: eosinophils versus B lymphocytes in disease pathogenesis . Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology vol. 24 , ( 1 ) 15 - 24 .
10.1097/aci.0000000000000959
James LK ( 2022 ) . B cells defined by immunoglobulin isotypes . Clinical & Experimental Immunology vol. 210 , ( 3 ) 230 - 239 .
10.1093/cei/uxac091
King HW, Wells KL, Shipony Z, Kathiria AS, Wagar LE, Lareau C, Orban N, Capasso R et al. ( 2021 ) . Integrated single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics reveals strong germinal center–associated etiology of autoimmune risk loci . Science Immunology vol. 6 , ( 64 )
10.1126/sciimmunol.abh3768
King HW, Orban N, Riches JC, Clear AJ, Warnes G, Teichmann SA, James LK ( 2021 ) . Single-cell analysis of human B cell maturation predicts how antibody class switching shapes selection dynamics . Science Immunology vol. 6 , ( 56 )
10.1126/sciimmunol.abe6291
All publications
Supervision
Current PhD students:
Adekunle Adeniran, funded by the Horne Family Foundation: EBV and Memory B-cells in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis
Ivy Akehurst, funded by Barts Charity: The impact of inflammation on protective immunity to respiratory pathogens
Former PhD students:
Grace Howells (2024): A comparison of technologies for the generation of novel antibodies
