Dr Elena Pontarini

Profile

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0439-0344

Elena Pontarini trained as a Biomedical Scientist at the University of Udine (Italy) before securing a fellowship from the Italian Society for Cancer Research to pursue an international PhD program in the field of Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases at the Humanitas Research Institute (Milan, Italy). During her PhD, she built a broad knowledge on rheumatic autoimmune conditions, with a specific focus in Sjogren’s syndrome, as she investigated the role of NK cells in an in vivo model for salivary gland immunopathology.

In 2016, she joined Prof. Bombardieri’s group at the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology of the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) as a post-doctoral research fellow. She consolidated her research interest in Sjogren’s syndrome with the award of a Versus Arthritis Foundation Fellowship, with a research project examining the immunological changes occurring during the formation of ectopic lymphoid structures in the target organs of Sjogren’s (salivary glands) and rheumatoid arthritis (synovium).

In 2020, she was appointed Lecturer in immunology at the William Harvey Research Institute.

Her current research interest is focused on investigating the relevance of specific T cell subsets (T follicular helper cells and T peripheral helper cells) in the regulation of ectopic lymphoid structures forming in the target tissue of autoimmune diseases and their role in promoting B cell lymphomagenesis. Also, these cell subsets are being explored as therapeutic targets of immunomodulatory agents in collaboration with international partners within a large EU IMI-funded Consortium for Sjogren’s Syndrome (NECESSITY). 

Awards/Grants

• Barts Charity - Seed Grant for research (2021)
• EULAR- Scientific training grant for young fellows (2021)
• Versus Arthritis- Foundation Fellowship (2018-2021)
• European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS)- Travel Fellowship (2013)
• European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)- Travel Fellowship (2013)
• Italian Society of Cytometry - Cytometry in experimental thesis award (2012)

Research

Group members

Farzana Chowdhury (PhD student), Aseel Atef S Ismail (PhD student).

Summary

The research focus is to understand which T cell populations can provide help to B-cell activation in the salivary glands of Sjogren’s Syndrome patients, recognised as one of the events supporting the formation of ectopic lymphoid structures. These structures are the niches of proliferating autoreactive B-cells favouring progression towards B-cell mucosa associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma. The identification of the specific T-cell population that can provide help to B-cells within Sjogren’s syndrome salivary gland will allow optimising the therapeutic targeting of the B cell-T helper cell interaction.  

In 2020, Elena published the discovery of T follicular helper (Tfh) cells and T peripheral helper (Tph) cells enriched in the blood and salivary glands of patients with Sjogren’s syndrome (Pontarini et al. ARD 2020). Tfh and Tph cells showed to be remarkably effective in promoting B cell activation, thus are likely to favour the progression towards lymphoma and may affect the clinical response to novel therapeutics targeting B/T cell interactions recently tested in clinical trials.  

Ongoing projects include the identification of the mechanisms by which Tph cells support B cell proliferation and clonal expansion and the validation of Tph cell expansion as a biomarker of disease activity and response/resistance to treatment targeting B-T co-stimulation in clinical trials. The research approach combines in vivo studies in salivary gland immunopathology animal model and the analysis of Sjogren’s syndrome patient cohorts with high dimensional flow-cytometry, histology and transcriptomic.

Elena teaches the BSc module Translational Pharmacology and Innovative Therapeutics (BMD375). 

Publications

• Emmerich K, Calcaterra F, Tang X et al. (2024). Protocol for differentiation of monocytes and macrophages from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103217

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/100712
• Ruscitti P, Allanore Y, Baldini C et al. (2024). Tailoring the treatment of inflammatory rheumatic diseases by a better stratification and characterization of the clinical patient heterogeneity. Findings from a systematic literature review and experts' consensus.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.autrev.2024.103581

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/100764
• Simoncelli E, Colafrancesco S, Pontarini E et al. (2024). AB0801 GLYCOLYSIS EXPRESSION IN LYMPHOCYTES INFILTRATING SJOGREN’S DISEASE SALIVARY GLANDS. A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS ON THE EXPRESSION OF THE GLUCOSE TRANSPORTER GLUT-1. Scientific Abstracts

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2024-eular.5766

  
  

  QMRO:
• Pontarini E, Sciacca E, Cavallaro G et al. (2024). AB0809 USER-FRIENDLY TOOL FOR EXPLORING RNA-SEQUENCE AND BIOMARKER DISCOVERY IN SJOGREN’S DISEASE: ANALYSE THE TWO BIGGEST DATASETS OF BLOOD AND SALIVARY GLAND RNA-SEQUENCING DATA USING R SHINY APPS. Scientific Abstracts

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2024-eular.5508

  
  

  QMRO:
• Rasmussen A, Radziszewski M, Khatri B et al. (2024). OP0113 GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDY OF Ro/SSA+ AND Ro/SSA-SJÖGREN’S CASES IN THE SJÖGREN’S GENETIC NETWORK (SGENE) DEMONSTRATES DIVERGENT GENETIC ARCHITECTURE IN PATIENT SUBPHENOTYPES. Scientific Abstracts

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2024-eular.3188

  
  

  QMRO:
• Radziszewski M, Wiley MM, Khatri B et al. (2024). OP0141 EXPLORING REGULATORY DYNAMICS: FUNCTIONAL SNPS IN THE PRDM1-ATG5 LOCUS IMPLICATED IN SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS AND SJÖGREN’S DISEASE. Scientific Abstracts

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2024-eular.5312

  
  

  QMRO:
• Surace A, Overend L, Sciacca E et al. (2024). OP0242 SYNOVIAL TISSUE AND BLOOD DEEP B/T CELL PHENOTYPING EXPLAINS RESPONSE MECHANISMS TO RITUXIMAB IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS IN R4RA. Scientific Abstracts

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2024-eular.5475

  
  

  QMRO:
• Corsiero E, Caliste M, Pontarini E et al. (2024). POS0250 GENERATION AND VALIDATION OF A HUMAN IMMUNE scFv LIBRARY FROM SJÖGREN’S SYNDROME SALIVARY GLAND B-CELLS. Scientific Abstracts

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2024-eular.3146

  
  

  QMRO:
• Pontarini E, Rizzo MT, Liefers SC et al. (2024). POS0265 ESTABLISHING CONSISTENCY IN THE DIGITAL IMAGING ANALYSIS OF HISTOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN SJOGREN’S DISEASE. Scientific Abstracts

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2024-eular.5217

  
  

  QMRO:
• Colafrancesco S, Simoncelli E, Pontarini E et al. (2024). POS0997 INFLAMMATION IN SJӦGREN DISEASE INDUCES SALIVARY GLAND EPITHELIAL CELLS (SGECS) METABOLIC REPROGRAMMING: FOCUS ON GLYCOLYSIS AND ITS REGULATION OF EPITHELIAL CELL ACTIVATION. Scientific Abstracts

  
  

  DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2024-eular.5085

  
  

  QMRO:

Collaborators

• Dr Gwenny Verstappen - University of Groningen
• Dr Silvia della Bella - University of Milan