Biography
Arwen graduated in 2013 from Utrecht University, the Netherlands with an MSc degree in Infection & Immunity. As part of the MSc programme, she worked as a research intern in the labs of Prof Linde Meyaard (UMC Utrecht, the Netherlands) and Prof Hidde Ploegh (Whitehead Institute, Boston, USA).
In 2018, Arwen obtained her PhD degree from Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Under the supervision of Prof Guus Rimmelzwaan & Dr Rory de Vries, she investigated properties of the modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) vaccine platform and worked on MVA-based influenza vaccine candidates capable of inducing broadly protective immune responses.
Subsequently, Arwen joined the lab of Prof Geoffrey Smith (University of Cambridge) as a postdoc. She moved to the group of Prof Louise Boyle in October 2020 to work on the characterisation of TAPBPR function.
January 2023, Arwen received a Wellcome Early-Career Award and started her lab researching MHC-I antigen processing and presentation in viral immune detection and evasion.
Research
Research focus: MHC-I antigen processing and presentation in virus immune detection and evasion
Major Histocompatibility Complex class I (MHC-I) molecules are essential for orchestrating immune responses to tumours and pathogen-infected cells. They do this by presenting protein fragments (peptides) from pathogen and tumour proteins at the cell surface for surveillance by immune cells. When CD8+ T cells detect a foreign (viral) peptide presented by MHC-I, they will proceed to lysing the target cell.
Immunogenic peptides are generated and selected for presentation in the MHC-I antigen processing and presentation pathway. To evade immune detection, viruses have evolved strategies to manipulate MHC-I molecules directly or to interfere with other proteins in the antigen processing and pathway. We are interested in exploring the MHC-I antigen processing and presentation pathway in virus infections to i) gain a better understanding of immune detection of virus-infected cells and ii) to explore novel strategies by which viruses evade MHC-I pathway proteins. Ultimately, characterisation of these dynamics can inform development of novel vaccines and therapeutics.
Publications
- AF Altenburg#, JL Morley, J Bauer, JS Walz, LH Boyle#. Reanalysis of immunopeptidomics datasets provides mechanistic insight into TAPBPR-mediated peptide editing on HLA-A, -B and -C molecules. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.20738.1. 2024. Wellcome Open Research.
- DM Depierreux*, AF Altenburg*, L Soday, A Fletcher-Etherington, R Antrobus, BJ Fergusson, MP Weekes, GL Smith. Selective modulation of cell surface proteins during vaccinia infection: implications for immune evasion strategies. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010612. 2022. PLoS Pathogens.
- RD de Vries*, AF Altenburg*, NJ Nieuwkoop, E de Bruin, SE van Trierum, MR Pronk, M Richard, DF Nieuwenhuijse, MPG Koopmans, JHCM Kreijtz, RAM Fouchier, ADME Osterhaus, G Sutter, GF Rimmelzwaan. Induction of cross-clade antibody and T-cell responses by an MVA-based influenza H5N1 vaccine in a randomized phase I/IIa clinical trial. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiy214. 2018. Journal of Infectious Diseases.
- AF Altenburg, SE van Trierum, E de Bruin, D de Meulder, CE van de Sandt, FRM van der Klis, RAM Fouchier, MPG Koopmans, GF Rimmelzwaan, RD de Vries. Effects of pre-existing orthopoxvirus-specific immunity on the performance of Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara-based influenza vaccines. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-24820-2. 2018. Scientific Reports.
- AF Altenburg*, CE van de Sandt*, BWS Li, RJ MacLoughlin, RAM Fouchier, G van Amerongen, A Volz, RW Hendriks, RL de Swart, G Sutter, GF Rimmelzwaan, RD de Vries. Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara preferentially targets antigen presenting cells in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08719-y. 2017. Scientific Reports.
- AF Altenburg, CE van de Sandt, SE van Trierum, HL De Gruyter, PR van Run, RA Fouchier, K Roose, X Saelens, A Volz, G Sutter, RD de Vries, GF Rimmelzwaan. Increased protein degradation improves influenza virus nucleoprotein-specific CD8+T cell activation in vitro but not in C57BL/6 mice. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01633-16. 2016. Journal of Virology.
Teaching and Supervisions
Dominic Nolan (Research Assistant)
In 2014 Dominic graduated with a BSc Hons in Biology from Oxford Brookes University. Following a seven-year career in hospitality management, in 2021 he began an MSc in Clinical & Molecular Microbiology at the University of Nottingham. As part of the MSc program, Dominic was involved in a Hepatitis C Virus pseudotyping project in Professor Jonathan Ball and Professor Alex Tarr’s research group.
Subsequently, Dominic developed technical expertise in cell sorting as a Flow Cytometry Assistant at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. In March 2024, Dominic joined the Altenburg lab as a Research Assistant to investigate MHC-I antigen processing and presentation in viral immune detection and evasion.
