Andrea Cerutti, MD, PhD, is an ICREA Professor since 2010 and leads the B Cell Biology Group at Hospital del Mar Research Institute Barcelona, a research center within the PRBB complex. He served as grant reviewer for the European Research Council and the National Institutes of Health and has been awarded several NIH R01, P01, U01 and R21 grants (2001-present), an ERC Advanced grant (2011) as well as several grants from the Spanish government (2008-present). He also serves as manuscript reviewer for Cell, Science, Nature, Immunity, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, etc. He contributed to the organization of the 2014 and 2016 Keystone Symposia meetings on B cells.

We take advantage of standard and state-of-the-art approaches, including high-dimensional flow cytometry, bacterial flow cytometry, B cell receptor gene sequencing, 16S rDNA sequencing, bulk and single cell RNA sequencing, phage display immunoprecipitation sequencing, and amplification-cloning-expression of human antibodies to address basic questions related to the biology of antibody responses in health and disease. The main focus of our research revolves around “frontline” mucosal and splenic marginal zone B cell responses, including splenic IgM and IgG production, intestinal IgA and IgM production, and nasopharyngeal IgD production. We are particularly interested in how innate immune and stromal cells regulate the activation of splenic and mucosal B cells, including the induction of antibody responses to commensals for the maintenance of mucosal homeostasis. Finally, we study primary antibody deficiencies to better understand the factors involved in B cell regulation.