Dr. Giuliana Magri is a group leader at University of Barcelona where she investigates the role of B cells and mucosal antibodies in host-microbiota interactions under homeostasis and chronic inflammation.

Dr. Magri earned her PhD in Biomedicine from Pompeu Fabra University in 2011. She then joined the B cell biology laboratory led by Dr. Cerutti at IMIM, Barcelona, for her postdoctoral studies. During this time, she discovered that a unique subset of innate lymphoid cells (ILC3), previously thought to reside only in mucosal tissues, could regulate T-independent antibody responses in the spleen. In the later stages of her postdoctoral research, she provided fundamental insights into the development, regulation, and function of secretory IgM in the human intestine.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Magri shifted a significant part of her research to studying immune responses to SARS-CoV-2. She contributed to understanding the complexity of immune response dynamics following infection and mRNA vaccination and successfully generated an ultrapotent, pan-neutralizing monoclonal antibody against SARS-CoV-2.

Since joining the University of Barcelona in 2023, her research has focused on understanding the role of the microbiota and mucosal antibodies in Crohn’s disease immunopathology by using unique human samples and state-of-the-art systems immunology omics approaches.