Professor Claudio Mauro MSc PhD FHEA

Claudio Mauro

Institute of Inflammation and Ageing
Professor of Metabolism and Inflammation
British Heart Foundation Senior Basic Science Research Fellow
British Journal of Pharmacology Senior Editor (Metabolism)

Contact details

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.

Read more online about the Mauro Research Group

For the Italian readers: Nel laboratorio del Professor Claudio Mauro, tra passione e successo.

Follow the Mauro Lab on social media: Mauro Lab X/Twitter

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 2014, PLoS Biol 2015, Trends Biochem Sci 2016, Eur J Immunol 2016, Cell Metab 2017, 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. Cardiov Res 2019, Cell Metab 2019, Brit J Pharmacol 2020, Nat Rev Immunol 2020, Biochem Pharmacol 2022, iScience 2022, Trends Endocr Metab 2022, Brit J Pharmacol 2022, Clin Transl Med 2023).

In 2020, he was promoted to Professor of Metabolism and Inflammation.

In 2022, he was awarded a prestigious British Heart Foundation Senior Basic Science Research Fellowship.

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
DateName
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
DateName
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
DateName
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
DateName
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:

  • 69 total publications: (Google Scholar: h-index=36; citations=5,310).
  • Best research articles: 1) Nat Cell Biol 2011 (1st author); 2) Immunity 2015 (co-author); 3) Cell Metab 2017 (1st, corresponding and lead author); 4) Cell Metab 2019 (last author); 5) Immunity 2019 (co-author); 6) Nat Immunol in press (2nd last author).
  • Best 2nd tier research articles: 1) PNAS 2010 (co-1st author): 2) PNAS 2013 (3rd author); 3) PNAS 2015 (2nd last author); 4) Plos Biol 2015 (last author); 5) PNAS 2016 (co-author); 6) Nat Commun 2017 (2nd last and corresponding author); 7) Nat Commun 2020 (co-author); 8) Clin Transl Med 2023 (3rd last author).
  • Best senior author research articles: 1) Plos Biol 2015 (last author); 2) Cell Metab 2017 (1st, corresponding and lead author); 3) Nat Commun 2017 (2nd last and corresponding author); 4) Cell Metab 2019 (last author); 5) Cardiov Res 2019 (last author); 6) Biochem Pharmacol 2022 (joint last author); 7) Nat Immunol in press (2nd 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 2023 (last author); 5) Nat Rev Cardiol in press (2nd author); 6) Trends Biochem Sci in preparation (last author); 7) Immunity in preparation (last author).

Other activities

Editorial Board Member

  • Clinical and Experimental Immunology (current)
  • British Journal of Pharmacology (current)

External Committees

  • 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 Committees

  • 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)

Entrepreneurship 

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

Publications

Recent publications

Article

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

Farah, H, Wijesinghe, S, Nicholson, T, Alnajjar, FAQ, Certo, M, Alghamdi, AMA, Davis, E, Young, S, Mauro, C & Jones, S 2022, 'Differential metabotypes in synovial fibroblasts and synovial fluid in hip osteoarthritis patients support inflammatory responses', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 23, no. 6, 3266. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23063266

Macchi, C, Moregola, A, Greco, MF, Svecla, M, Bonacina, F, Dhup, S, Dadhich, RK, Audano, M, Sonveaux, P, Mauro, C, Mitro, N, Ruscica, M & Norata, GD 2022, 'Monocarboxylate transporter 1 deficiency impacts CD8+ T lymphocytes proliferation and recruitment to adipose tissue during obesity', iScience, vol. 25, no. 6, 104435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104435

Camacho-Muñoz, D, Niven, J, Kucuk, S, Cucchi, D, Certo, M, Jones, SW, Fischer, DP, Mauro, C & Nicolaou, A 2022, 'Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids reverse the impact of western diets on regulatory T cell responses through averting ceramide-mediated pathways', Biochemical Pharmacology, vol. 204, 115211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcp.2022.115211

Yildiz, O, Schroth, J, Lombardi, V, Pucino, V, Bobeva, Y, Yip, PK, Schmierer, K, Mauro, C, Tree, T, Henson, SM & Malaspina, A 2022, 'The expression of active CD11b monocytes in blood and disease progression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis', International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 23, no. 6, 3370. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23063370

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

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

Mauro, C, Naylor, AJ & Lord, JM 2022, 'Themed issue: Inflammation, repair and ageing', British Journal of Pharmacology, vol. 179, no. 9, pp. 1787-1789. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15799

Patent

Mauro, C, Marelli-Berg, F & Haas, R, Inhibitors of lactate transporters for use in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, Patent No. EP3209328.

Review article

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

Certo, M, Llibre, A, Lee, W & Mauro, C 2022, 'Understanding lactate sensing and signalling', Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 33, no. 10, pp. 722-735. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2022.07.004

Conway, J, Certo, M, Lord, JM, Mauro, C & Duggal, NA 2022, 'Understanding the role of host metabolites in the induction of immunesenescence: future strategies for keeping the ageing population healthy', British Journal of Pharmacology, vol. 179, no. 9, pp. 1808-1824. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.15671

Llibre, A, Dedicoat, M, Burel, JG, Demangel, C, O'Shea, MK & Mauro, C 2021, 'Host immune-metabolic adaptations upon mycobacterial infections and associated co-morbidities', Frontiers in immunology, vol. 12, 747387. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.747387

View all publications in research portal