Professor Claudio Mauro MSc PhD FHEA

Department of Inflammation and Ageing
Professor of Metabolism and Inflammation
British Heart Foundation Senior Basic Science Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 371 7892
Email: c.mauro@bham.ac.uk

View my research portal

Address: Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Mindelsohn Way
Birmingham, B15 2WB

Professor Mauro trained as biochemist and cellular biologist before starting to approach immunological questions with his own group, motivated by the recent ‘renaissance’ in the interest in metabolism in widespread fields of the basic and clinical science.

The Mauro’s group investigates the interconnections between metabolic and inflammatory pathways and how systemic and local metabolic alterations in diseases with an inflammatory component lead to aberrant immune cell responses, which favour both the establishment and the propagation of inflammation. In particular, they focus on unveiling how specific metabolites, including lactate and fatty acids, can surprisingly act as signalling molecules modulating many aspects of the immune-inflammatory response.

Per i lettori italiani: Nel laboratorio del Professor Claudio Mauro, tra passione e successo.

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ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3736-0099

Qualifications

Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (ASN) a Professore di I Fascia (Italy), 2023
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA, UK), 2016
PhD in Molecular Oncology and Endocrinology, University of Naples Federico II (Italy), 2007
Medical Biotechnology Degree (combined 5 year BSc and MSc programme, 1st class Honours), University of Naples Federico II (Italy), 2002
Classical Humanities High School Diploma, Virgilio Institute, Lecce (Italy), 1997

Biography

Professor Mauro graduated from the University of Naples “Federico II” in Italy with a combined 5-year BSc and MSc degree in Medical Biotechnology in 2002 followed by a PhD in Molecular Oncology and Endocrinology in 2007.

During his PhD (2002-07) he studied the pro-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic response controlled by the NF-kB family of transcription factors. In these studies he discovered novel mechanisms of activation of NF-kB downstream of TNF receptors and upon endoplasmic reticulum stress as well as the contribution of NF-kB activity to thyroid tumourigenesis (Biochem Biophys Res Comm 2003, J Biol Chem 2004, J Biol Chem 2006a, J Biol Chem 2006b, J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2008).
During his post-doc (2007-11) – supported in part by a Foundation Fellowship awarded from the Italian Association for Cancer Research – he worked both at the University of Chicago in the USA and Imperial College London at the identification of the molecular mechanisms linking inflammation and metabolism in the adaptive immune system and in cancer (Proc Natl Acad Sci 2010, Nat Cell Biol 2011).
In 2011 he moved to the William Harvey Research Institute at the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London, where he focused on the investigation of the metabolic control of immune cell effector functions and the implications of the metabolic dependence of immune responses in inflammatory conditions. Through this work he obtained a prestigious Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship from the British Heart Foundation in 2012 (until 2019) alongside other competitive research grants, and published a number of papers in the field (e.g., Mol Cell Proteomics 2015, PLoS Biol 2015, Trends Biochem Sci 2016, Eur J Immunol 2016, Cell Metab 2017 [Commentary; Press Release], Nat Commun 2017, Immunity 2017).
In 2018 he joined the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham as a Professorial Research Fellow in Metabolism and Inflammation to lead a group of scientists working on basic and translational aspects of immunometabolism (e.g. Cell Metab 2019 [Press Release], Cardiov Res 2020 [Commentary], Nat Rev Immunol 2020, Biochem Pharmacol 2022, iScience 2022, Clin Transl Med 2023 [Press Release], Nat Immunol 2024 [Press Release]).
In 2020, he was promoted to Professor of Metabolism and Inflammation (watch his Inaugural Lecture).
In 2022, he was awarded one of four currently live British Heart Foundation Senior Fellowships running in the quinquennium 2023-28 (Check out the BHF Senior Fellows).
In 2023-24, he led on a successful bid to the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Doctorate Network call that will focus on UnderstandiNg fraIlty tOwards a future of healthy ageiNg (UNION) and will run in the quadriennium 2025-2029 (Per i lettori italiani: Invecchiamento virtuoso: UE e UK per formare Ricercatori)

Postgraduate supervision

Professor Mauro has supervised the following individuals during their MSc, PhD or during their post-doc. The next position of past members of the group is noted in brackets:

PhD students
Date	Name
Oct 24 -	Ms Tompkins, MRC AIM (Co-Supervisory Team)
Oct 24 -	Ms Ali, MRC AIM (2nd Supervisor)
Oct 23 – current	Ms Gope, British Heart Foundation Senior Fellowship (1st Supervisor)
Oct 23 – current	Ms Crastin, Biomedical Research Centre – Sarcopenia Unit (2nd Supervisor)
Oct 23 – current	Ms Rudzinska, Biomedical Research Centre – Sarcopenia Unit (2nd Supervisor)
Oct 19 – Dec 23	Dr Conway, Centre for Musculo-skeletal Ageing Research (2nd supervisor)
Oct 19 - Sep 23	Dr Kucuk, Centre for Musculo-skeletal Ageing Research/UoB Professorial Fellowship (1st supervisor; then Research Scientist at Biotech)
Oct 18 – Mar 22	Dr Hussein, Centre for Musculo-skeletal Ageing Research PhD student (2nd supervisor; then post-doc at UoOxford))
Mar 16 – Feb 19	Dr Pucino (MD), AR-UK Clinical Research Fellow (1st supervisor; then clinical fellow at UoB)
Dec 12 – Mar 16	Dr Haas, MRC PhD student (1st supervisor; then post-doc at The Francis Crick Institute)
Feb 12 – Oct 15	Dr Cheung, BHF PhD student (2nd supervisor; then post-doc at QMUL)

Masters students
Date	Name
Dec 23 - current	Mr Konesh, MRes Inflammation and Ageing
Dec 23 - current	Ms Oancea, MSci Biomedical Science
Nov 21 - Sep 23	Ms Gope, MRes Inflammation and Ageing (then PhD student at UoBirmingham)
May 23 - Aug 23	Ms Joe, MSc Immunology and Immunotherapy
Dec 22 - Mar 23	Ms Hussain, MSci Biomedical Science
May 22 - Aug 22	Ms Harte, MSc Immunology and Immunotherapy (then research assistant at UoCambridge)
Apr 21 – Aug 21	Mr Owen, MSc Immunology and Immunotherapy (then research assistant at The Binding Site)
Apr 19 – Aug 19	Mr Radvan, MSc Immunology & Immunotherapy (then PhD student at UoVienna)
Feb 18 – Aug 18	Ms Bono, MSc Immunology (then research assistant at QMUL)
Jan 15 – Sep 15	Ms Poojara, MRes Inflammation (then research assistant at ICL)
Jan 15 – Sep 15	Ms Macdougall, MRes Inflammation (then BHF-funded PhD student at QMUL)
Jan 14 – Sep 14	Ms Mistry, MRes Inflammation (then PhD student at QMUL)

Postdoctoral Fellows
Date	Name
Mar 20 – current	Dr Llibre, Marie-Curie Fellow/UoBirmingham Assistant Professor
Jun 17 - current	Dr Certo, BHF/UoB Professorial Fellowship/MRC-funded post-doc
May 19 – Dec 23	Dr Niven, UoB Professorial Fellowship-funded post-doc (then post-doc at UoBirmingham)
Aug 16 – Jul 18	Dr Cucchi, BHF-funded post-doc (then post-doc at the Barts Cancer Institute, QMUL)
Apr 13 – Mar 17	Dr Smith, BHF-funded Graduate Research Assistant (then Higher Scientific Officer at ICR Sutton)

Visiting Fellows
Date	Name
Feb 24 – current	Prof Rahimzadeh, visiting professor (Homozigan University, Iran)
Nov 23 – Jan 24	Ms Brescia, visiting PhD student (UoCatanzaro, Italy; then back to UoCatanzaro)
Nov 22 – Oct 23	Dr Bingsheng Wang, visiting post-doctoral fellow (Jinan University, China; then back to Jinan University)
Jan 19 – June 19	Dr Hagar Elkafrawy, visiting lecturer (UoAlexandria, Egypt; then back to UoAlexandria)
Oct 14 – Jul 16	Dr Cucchi, Institute Pasteur Foundation Cenci-Bolognetti Post-doctoral Fellow (then BHF-funded post-doc in the Mauro’s group at QMUL)

If you are interested in studying any of these subject areas please contact Professor Claudio Mauro directly, or for any general doctoral research enquiries, please email mds-gradschool@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

For a full list of available Doctoral Research opportunities, please visit our Doctoral Research programme listings.

Research

The research in the Mauro’s group focuses on the interconnections between metabolic and inflammatory pathways and how systemic and cellular metabolic alterations in diseases with an inflammatory component lead to aberrant immune cell responses, which favour both the establishment and the propagation of inflammation. In particular, they investigate the mechanisms of metabolic control of T cell-mediated immune responses, including migration, differentiation and cytokine production in physiology and under metabolic stress.

One key area of their research is how small metabolites, like lactate, which accumulates locally in the inflamed tissue or systemically during acute and chronic inflammation, can impact the fate of the immune-inflammatory response via induction of intracellular metabolic rewiring with immediate effect on broad range human diseases.
Another important aspect of their research is how fatty acids can impact the outcomes of an immune response, with repercussions on obesity-related diseases.

Overall, their studies indicate that interfering with metabolic pathways (i.e., lipid, glucose and oxidative metabolism) alters immune cell effector functions and can be exploited for therapy.

Their main research outputs are:

76 total publications: h-index=36; citations=5,933 (Google Scholar).
Best research articles: 1) Nat Cell Biol 2011 (1^st author); 2) Immunity 2015 (co-author); 3) Cell Metab 2017 (1^st, corresponding and lead author); 4) Immunity 2017 (co-author); 5) Cell Metab 2019 (last author); 6) Nat Immunol 2024 (2^nd last author).
Best 2^nd tier research articles: 1) PNAS 2010 (co-1^st author); 2) PNAS 2013 (3^rd author); 3) PNAS 2015 (2^nd last author; Commentary) ; 4) Plos Biol 2015 (last author); 5) PNAS 2016 (co-author); 6) Nat Commun 2017 (2^nd last and corresponding author); 7) Nat Commun 2020 (co-author); 8) Clin Transl Med 2023 (3^rd last author).
Best senior author research articles: 1) Plos Biol 2015 (last author); 2) Cell Metab 2017 (1^st, corresponding and lead author); 3) Nat Commun 2017 (2^nd last and corresponding author); 4) Cell Metab 2019 (last author); 5) Cardiov Res 2020 (last author); 6) Biochem Pharmacol 2022 (joint last author); 7) Nat Immunol 2024 (2^nd last author).
Best review/commentary articles: 1) Trends Biochem Sci 2016 (last author); 2) Nat Rev Immunol 2021 (last author); 3) Trends Edocrinol Metab 2022 (last author); 4) Nat Immunol 2024 (last author); 5) Nat Rev Cardiol 2024 (2^nd author); 6) Trends Biochem Sci (last author); 7) Immunity invited, under review (last author).

Professor Mauro research is embedded in the Departments of Inflammation and Ageing (IIA), Cardiovascular Sciences (ICVS) and Metabolism and Systems Research (IMSR), Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing (CMAR), Centre of Membrane Proteins and Receptors (COMPARE), Centre for Neurogenetics Research, and Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Sarcopenia and Multi-morbidity, Thrombo-Inflammation and Women's Metabolic Health Units.

Professor Mauro is also active on engaging the public and the students communities:

Other activities

Editorial Board Memberships

External Committee Memberships

Arthritis Research UK Foundation Fellowships (2019)
Nutrition-responsiveness of the immune system (NUTRIMMUNE)” international call of the Joint Programming Initiative “a Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” (JPI HDHL) (2022)
Wellcome Trust CDA and Discovery Awards Immunology Panel (2023)
UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships (2023 - current)
Versus Arthritis Early Detection and Targeted Treatments, "Discovery" Panel (2024)

Internal Committee Memberships

REF2021 Committee, Institute of Inflammation and Ageing (Co-Lead - Outputs) and MDS (2020-21)
BHF Accelerator Award Grant Committee (2020-2023)
Research Strategy Committee (Co-Lead), Institute of Inflammation and Ageing (2021-2023)
BHF Strategy Group (current)
PGR Committee, Institute of Inflammation and Ageing (current)
Research Strategy Committee, Institute of Inflammation and Ageing (current)
Executive Committee, Institute of Inflammation and Ageing (current)

Entrepreneurships

Lmito Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Board Member (current)
Solute Guard Therapeutics (SGTx) CSO and Founder (launching June/July 2024)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Conway, J, De Jong, EN, White, A, Dugan, B, Paddison Rees, N, Parnell, S, Lamberte, L, Sharma‐oates, A, Sullivan, J, Mauro, C, van Schaik, W, Anderson, G, Bowdish, DME & Duggal, N 2024, 'Age‐related loss of intestinal barrier integrity plays an integral role in thymic involution and T cell ageing', Aging Cell. https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.14401

Griffiths, K, Grand, RJ, Horan, I, Certo, M, Keeler, RC, Mauro, C, Tseng, C-C, Greig, I, Morrell, NW, Zanda, M, Frenneaux, MP & Madhani, M 2024, 'Fluorinated perhexiline derivative attenuates vascular proliferation in pulmonary arterial hypertension smooth muscle cells', Vascular Pharmacology, vol. 156, 107399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vph.2024.107399

Certo, M, Niven, J, Haas, R, Rudzinska, P, Smith, J, Cucchi, D, Hombrebueno, JR & Mauro, C 2024, 'The sedoheptulose kinase CARKL controls T cell cytokine outputs and migration by promoting metabolic reprogramming', Discovery Immunology. https://doi.org/10.1093/discim/kyae016

Bradford, HF, McDonnell, TCR, Stewart, A, Skelton, A, Ng, J, Baig, Z, Fraternali, F, Dunn-Walters, D, Isenberg, DA, Khan, AR, Mauro, C & Mauri, C 2024, 'Thioredoxin is a metabolic rheostat controlling regulatory B cells', Nature Immunology, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 873-885. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-024-01798-w

Wijesinghe, S, Badoume, A, Nanus, D, Sharma-Oates, A, Farah, H, Certo, M, Alnajjar, FAQ, Davis, E, Mauro, C, Lindsay, MA & Jones, S 2023, 'Obesity defined molecular endotypes in the synovium of patients with osteoarthritis provides a rationale for therapeutic targeting of fibroblast subsets', Clinical and Translational Medicine, vol. 13, no. 4, e1232. https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.1232

Grudzinska, F, Jasper, A, Sapey, E, Thickett, D, Mauro, C, Scott, A & Barlow, J 2023, 'Real-time assessment of neutrophil metabolism and oxidative burst using extracellular flux analysis', Frontiers in immunology, vol. 14, 1083072. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1083072

Comment/debate

Gope, A & Mauro, C 2024, 'When ceramides meet immune senescence, a GIMAP5 connection', Nature Immunology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01736-2

Certo, M, Niven, J & Mauro, C 2023, 'Repurposing SGLT2 inhibitors for autoimmune diseases? YES, WE MAY!', Cell Chemical Biology, vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 1009-1011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2023.07.020

Editorial

Ruscica, M, Macchi, C & Mauro, C 2024, 'Unravelling the link between immunity and obesity in adolescents', Journal of Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.08.019

Papapetropoulos, A, Alexander, SPH, Cortese-Krott, M, Kendall, DA, Martemyanov, K, Mauro, C, Panettieri, RA, Patel, HH, Schulz, R, Stefanska, B, Stephens, GJ, Teixeira, MM, Vergnolle, N, Wang, XJ & Ferdinandy, P 2023, 'Recent changes in the British Journal of Pharmacology: widening scope and improving author and editor experience', British Journal of Pharmacology, vol. 180, no. 17, pp. 2193-2195. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.16169

Preprint

Short, E, Adcock, IM, Al-Sarireh, B, Ager, A, Ajjan, R, Akbar, N, Akeroyd, MA, Alsaleh, G, Al-Sharbatee, G, Alavian, K, Amoaku, W, Andersen, J, Antoniades, C, Arends, MJ, Astley, S, Atan, D, Attanoos, R, Attems, J, Bain, S, Balaskas, K, Balmus, G, Bance, M, Barber, TM, Bardhan, A, Barker, K, Barnes, P, Basatemur, G, Bateman, A, Bauer, ME, Bellamy, C, van Beek, E, Bellantuono, I, Benbow, E, Bhandari, S, Bhatnagar, R, Bloom, P, Bowdish, D, Bowerman, M, Burke, M, Carare, R, Carrington, EV, Castillo-Quan, JI, Clegg, P, Cole, J, Cota, C, Chazot, P, Chen, C, Cheong, Y, Christopher, G, Church, G, Clancy, D, Cool, P, Del Galdo, F, Dalakoti, M, Dasgupta, S, Deane, C, Dhasmana, D, Dojcinov, S, Di Prete, M, Du, H, Duggal, NA, Ellmers, T, Emanueli, C, Emberton, M, Erusalimsky, JD, Feldmeyer, L, Fleming, A, Forbes, K, Foster, TC, Frasca, D, Frayling, I, Freedman, D, Fülöp, T, Ellison-Hughes, G, Gazzard, G, George, C, Gil, J, Glassock, R, Goldin, R, Green, J, Guymer, R, Haboubi, H, Harries, L, Hart, S, Hartley, D, Hasaballa, S, Henein, C, Helliwell, M, Henderson, E, Heer, R, Holte, K, Idris, I, Isenburg, D, Jylhävä, J, Iqbal, A, Jones, SW, Kalaria, R, Kanamarlapudi, V, Kempf, W, Kermack, AJ, Kerns, J, Koulman, A, Khan, AH, Kinross, J, Klaucane, K, Krishna, Y, Gill, HS, Lakatta, E, Laconi, E, Lazar, A, Leeuwenburgh, C, Leung, S, Li, X, van der Linde, I, Lopes, LV, Lorenzini, A, Lotery, A, Machado, P, Mackie, S, Madeddu, P, Maier, A, Mukkanna, K, Manousou, P, Markey, O, Mauro, C, McDonnell, B, Medina, RJ, Meran, S, Metzler-Baddeley, C, Meglinksi, I, Milman, N, Mitteldorf, C, Montgomery, R, Morris, AC, Mühleisen, B, Mukherkee, A, Murray, A, Nelson, S, Nicolaou, A, Nirenberg, A, Noble, S, Nolan, LS, Nus, M, Van On, C, Osei-Lah, V, Peffers, M, Palmer, A, Palmer, D, Palmer, L, Parry-Smith, W, Pawelec, G, Peleg, S, Perera, R, Pitsillides, A, Plack, CJ, Progatzsky, F, Pyott, S, Rajput, K, Rashid, S, Ratnayaka, JA, Ratnayake, SAB, Rodriguez-Justo, M, Rosa, AC, Rule, A, Sanger, GJ, Sayers, I, Saykin, A, Selvarajah, D, Sethi, J, Shanahan, C, Shen-Orr, S, Sheridan, C, Shiels, P, Sidlauskas, K, Sivaprasad, S, Sluimer, J, Small, G, Smith, P, Smith, R, Snelling, S, Spyridopoulos, I, Srinivasa Raghavan, R, Steel, D, Steel, KP, Stewart, C, Stone, K, Subbarayan, S, Sussman, M, Svensson, J, Tadanki, V, Tan, AL, Tanzi, RE, Tatler, A, Tavares, AAS, Tengku Mohd, TAM, Tiganescu, A, Timmons, J, Tree, J, Trivedi, D, Tsochatzis, EA, Tsimpida, D, Vinke, EJ, Whittaker, A, Vallabh, NA, Veighey, K, Venables, ZC, Reddy, V, Vernooij, MW, Verschoor, C, Vinciguerra, M, Vukanovic, V, Vyazovskiy, V, Walker, J, Wakefield, R, Watkins, AJ, Webster, A, Weight, C, Weinberger, B, Whitney, SL, Willis, R, Witkowski, JM, Yeo, LLL, Chung, TY, Yu, E, Zemel, M, Calimport, SRG & Bentley, BL 2024 'Defining an Ageing-Related Pathology, Disease or Syndrome: International Consensus Statement' medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.02.24312951

Review article

Maffia, P, Mauro, C, Case, A & Kemper, C 2024, 'Canonical and non-canonical roles of complement in atherosclerosis', Nature Reviews Cardiology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-024-01016-y

Certo, M, Rahimzadeh, M & Mauro, C 2024, 'Immunometabolism in atherosclerosis: a new understanding of an old disease', Trends in Biochemical Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibs.2024.06.003

Wang, X, Izzo, AA, Papapetropoulos, A, Alexander, SPH, Cortese-Krott, M, Kendall, DA, Martemyanov, KA, Mauro, C, Panettieri, RA, Patel, HH, Schulz, R, Stefanska, B, Stephens, GJ, Teixeira, MM, Vergnolle, N & Ferdinandy, P 2024, 'Natural product pharmacology: the British Journal of Pharmacology perspective', British Journal of Pharmacology, vol. 181, no. 19, pp. 3547-3555. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.17300

Papapetropoulos, A, Topouzis, S, Alexander, SPH, Cortese‐Krott, M, Kendall, DA, Martemyanov, KA, Mauro, C, Nagercoil, N, Panettieri, RA, Patel, HH, Schulz, R, Stefanska, B, Stephens, GJ, Teixeira, MM, Vergnolle, N, Wang, X & Ferdinandy, P 2024, 'Novel drugs approved by the EMA, the FDA, and the MHRA in 2023: A year in review', British Journal of Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.16337

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