Dr. Susana Minguet

CV

Susana Minguet is group leader and lecturer in the Department of Immunology from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Freiburg. She studied Chemistry at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) in Spain. She obtained her PhD degree in Sciences (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) from the same university for her investigations at the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa in Madrid. After her dissertation, she performed a very successful postdoc at the Max Planck-Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany. In 2008, She was awarded with the prestigious Ramón y Cajal fellow to start her own line of research in Spain. Since 2011, she has her own research group at the University of Freiburg merging her expertise in molecular immunology, synthetic immunology and cancer with a strong focus on T-cell immunology. Her vision is to integrate basic immunological research with clinical-orientated challenges to translate basic research findings into clinical applications. The main goal of her research group is to understand how T cells are activated to develop novel avenues to improve T-cell immunotherapies against cancer. Her research is currently funded by several SFB initiatives from the DFG and European funding. 

Selected Publications

•  Noncanonical binding of Lck to CD3ε promotes TCR signaling and CAR function. Hartl FA, Beck-Garcìa E, Woessner NM, Flachsmann LJ, Cárdenas RMV, Brandl SM, Taromi S, Fiala GJ, Morath A, Mishra P, Yousefi OS, Zimmermann J, Hoefflin N, Köhn M, Wöhrl BM, Zeiser R, Schweimer K, Günther S, Schamel WW, Minguet S. Nat Immunol. 2020

•  Minguet S, Kläsener K, Schaffer AM, Fiala GJ, Osteso-Ibánez T, Raute K, Navarro-Lérida I, Hartl FA, Seidl M, Reth M, Del Pozo MA. Caveolin-1-dependent nanoscale organization of the BCR regulates B cell tolerance. Nat Immunol. 2017 Oct;18(10):1150-1159

• Goetz JG*, Minguet S*, Navarro I, Samaniego R, Tello M, Calvo E, Lazcano JJ, Osteso T, Pellinen T, Echarri A, Cerezo A, Garcia R, Keely PJ, Sánchez-Mateos P, Cukierman E, Del Pozo MA.  Biomechanical remodeling of the microenvironment by stromal caveolin-1 favors tumor invasion and metastais. Cell. 2011 (146):148-63.

•  Minguet S., M. Swamy, B. Alarcón, I.F. Luescher, and W.W.A. Schamel. Full activation of the T cell receptor requires both clustering and conformational changes at CD3. Immunity 2007 (26):43-54.

• Schamel WW, Alarcon B, Höfer T, Minguet S. The Allostery Model of TCR Regulation. J Immunol. 2017. 1:47-52.

FRIAS Research Projekt

MatrixCode: matrisome pathology

The “extracellular matrix” (ECM) encompasses all secreted, deposited, and soluble proteins in the interstitial milieu. In recent years, our perspective on ECM has changed on the functional and protein level, as we now understand the ECM less as a passive “scaffold”, and more as integral part of the diverse, complex, and dynamic signaling environment sustaining healthy tissue. By improved understanding of these complex aspects of the so-called “matrisome”, our opportunities to develop targeted therapies interacting with these processes in disease, scarring, and regeneration will be strengthened. The MatrixCode project aims to decipher how pathophysiological signaling depends on biochemical and biophysical modifications of the extracellular matrix. MatrixCode is compiled of four sub-projects focusing on different aspects of ECM signaling within wound healing and tumor biology. To MatrixCode, Susana Minguet contributes with her expertise studying the impact of the biophysical properties of the ECM in the migration of both tumor and T cells.