Congratulations to Sergio Villazala Merino and Mauro Gaya on their new paper in Immunity!

We are delighted to share that Sergio Villazala Merino and Mauro Gaya have published a new study in Immunity: "Germinal center interleukin-4 microniches drive tissue divergence of IgE memory B cell responses."

Sergio began his journey as a PhD student when our lab was still under the guidance of Verena Niederberger, and we had the privilege of co-supervising him. From the very beginning, he stood out as creative, diligent, and hard-working. A PhD is a long road with its share of difficult stretches, and Sergio went through all of them. We are very happy that he has stayed in touch with us, and even happier that he invited our lab to contribute to this work.

The study shows that germinal center IL-4 microniches, formed by T follicular helper cells, are essential for IgE production by memory B cells. By confining IgE memory responses to lymphoid organs, these microniches act as an anatomical safeguard against IgE production at barrier sites which are constantly exposed to environmental antigens. These findings advance our understanding of how allergic memory is controlled.

Congratulations, Sergio, on this milestone. Watching a student grow into an independent scientist is one of the greatest rewards of academic life, and we look forward to seeing what comes next for you. Thank you, Mauro, for the invitation to collaborate. It was a pleasure to contribute to this Immunity paper.

Read the paper: https://www.cell.com/immunity/fulltext/S1074-7613(26)00350-X

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