COPPOLA Mariateresa
Mariateresa Coppola is a physician-scientist and senior postdoctoral researcher at the Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID), Leiden University Medical Center.
After obtaining her medical degree from Sapienza University of Rome, she pursued her PhD at Leiden University Medical Center, investigating Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens for the development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. During her PhD, she also trained as a vaccinologist within a Marie Curie European training network. She subsequently joined Amsterdam UMC, where she studied B-cell and follicular T-helper-cell responses across immune-mediated diseases, before returning to Leiden University Medical Center.
Her current research explores why immune responses to infection and vaccination differ between individuals and populations, with a particular interest in how environmental and infectious exposures, including parasites, shape host immunity. Expanding beyond peripheral blood, her work also investigates secondary lymphoid tissues, providing insight into immune responses at sites where adaptive immunity is initiated. She combines human cohort studies with advanced human in vitro models, including 3D tonsil organoids, to dissect the interplay between immune cells and their tissue microenvironment.
Her research is supported by competitive Dutch and European funding. Coppola was awarded an NWO Veni grant to investigate how stromal cells contribute to inter-individual variation in vaccine-induced immunity. More recently, she obtained Horizon Europe funding as coordinating investigator to develop advanced human-based in vitro models that incorporate biological variability and relevant environmental and infectious exposures. Together with her involvement in the HypoVax Global and VALIDATE networks, these activities contribute to a broader research programme aimed at understanding human immunity in its tissue and environmental context.
Abstract: « Parasites Leave Their Mark: Immune Consequences of Exposure »
