General
Sanquin Guest Lecture by Marvin van Luijn
Associate Professor, Department Immunology, MS Centrum ErasMS
Title talk: Lymphocytes going off road in multiple sclerosis:
from hitmen to targets
The research group of Marvin van Luijn aims to identify the triggers, receptors and effector programs used by lymphocytes to infiltrate and cause damage in the brain of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). With genetic predisposition and infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) as the underlying factors, they elaborate on changes in B- and T-cell interaction both inside and outside the brain as key pathogenic events. To do so, they use state-of-the art technologies including B and T cell subset-focused scRNA-seq and spectral cytometry as well as different human in vitro models to mimic critical processes that shape B and T cells along their way into the brain. In this endeavor, they stratify our patient cohorts covering the whole lifespan of MS (MS center ErasMS) based on clinical course, treatment effects and both genetic risk scores and anti-EBV responses to assess the specificity of these events for MS.