We were delighted to welcome Professor Claudia Mauri to the team of our longest standing journal, Clinical & Experimental Immunology (CEI), as Editor-in-Chief in January. Professor Mauri, a globally renowned immunologist, succeeds Professor Leonie Taams in the role, and brings a wealth of expertise, in particular on the role of regulatory B cells in autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as in cancer. We caught up with Professor Mauri to find out more about her fascinating career, and about her vision for the journal.
Can you let us know a little about your career history and area of research?
Yes, of course. I came to the UK from Rome over thirty years ago with a grant from the Royal Society of Medicine to work at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, under the aegis of Professor Marc Feldmann. This was initially to be a short placement of just three months, but was extended to one year, after which I was offered a postdoc position. I never went back to Rome! I spent seven years at the Institute, then, when I became independent, I moved with a Wellcome grant to University College London, in the Division of Medicine, collaborating closely with Professor David Isenberg.
I have spent my whole career studying rheumatological disorders, primarily rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, both in humans as well as in animal models, and in fact my group was one of the first to publish a paper combining results in mice and humans. My immunological area of expertise is B cells, and I suppose many may know me for my pioneer work on regulatory B cells over twenty-five years ago now.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to move divisions, from Medicine to Infection and Immunity, based at the Royal Free Hospital, where UCL has the beautiful new state-of-the-art Pears Institute of Immunity and Transplantation. Most recently I have taken an interest in translating my knowledge of auto-immune disorders into the area of cancer, in particular renal cell carcinoma.
What appealed to you about the role of Editor-in-Chief of Clinical & Experimental Immunology?
The BSI has always been a fundamental part of my network in the UK. It is a true community, and I remember as a young postdoc attending the BSI Congress and meeting colleagues and peers who went on to become lifelong friends. You become aware of this incredible wealth of beautiful science, and it is a community I am very proud to be part of. Particularly for someone who wasn’t born in the UK, it goes a long way to make you feel integrated in the scientific community here.
Of course a society relies on the contribution of its members, and I have tried to do my bit over the years, including as part of the organising committee for Congress, and I always encourage members of my team to take up roles where they can too.
When I was first approached about the Editor-in-Chief role, my immediate thought was that I simply didn’t have the time, but then I started to think about it more, and whether it might be possible to free up the time necessary to dedicate to it. The BSI has given me a lot over the years and I am now at a stage of my career where I think it’s important to give back. Something I think people don’t always realise is how much vital income the BSI journals generate, and how much we benefit from this as Society members.
What sets Clinical & Experimental Immunology apart from other journals, and What are your key priorities as Editor-in-Chief?
One month before I was approached about the role, I had sent a manuscript to CEI. It was a study of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), looking at their responses to the COVID-19 vaccine and showing how they begin to mount a measurable immune response only after three doses.
For a while, I couldn’t think of a journal that would be suitable for this paper, which was so important for people with SLE still unsure about how to protect themselves and understand their risks. I considered a lot of journals, but knew it wasn’t quite right for them, before eventually realising that CEI was the perfect home for it. That got me thinking: why didn’t I think of CEI immediately? I have no doubt there are many other similarly important papers for which CEI is a great fit, and I want to make sure their authors think of us first!
One of my priorities will be to go to seminal national and international meetings and publicise the journal at those, to let people know how vital CEI is to the UK and international immunology community.
I am also looking forward to meeting all the section editors, and will be recruiting new section editors too, to expand our expertise. Immunology is such a broad and diverse field and we need specialised people to ensure comprehensive coverage.
What areas of immunology you are excited to see develop in the coming years?
We have seen an increase in studies using big -omics data, and which draw on artificial intelligence to great effect. I predict this will continue to grow as an area of focus. I’d like to attract more bioinformatics papers, and see how we can collaborate more with bioinformaticians to create valuable platforms to advance our knowledge of immunology. CEI is already very strong in auto-immunity, and I predict there will be an increase in papers coming through in cancer immunology.
But I wouldn’t want to focus on one area to the detriment of others: all branches of immunology are equally important!
What do you want people to know about publishing their work in Clinical & Experimental Immunology?
I want people to know that we consider any good quality work, especially where there is a solid mechanistic finding. It doesn’t matter if it is in mice, in humans – any high-quality immunology interests us.
Throughout my career I have often made a conscious decision to send my work to new, lesser-known journals, many of which are now very prominent. I want to demonstrate to as many researchers as possible that CEI is a solid choice for their work.
I would also emphasise that, even if findings have previously been published, if they are then reproduced in a slightly different context, that is important too. It makes the original finding reproducible and real. I would certainly say: don’t be afraid that your work is not novel enough. There’s a strong chance it is!
I would also stress the personal touch of a journal like CEI. I know from experience that the level of support BSI journals give their contributors is second to none. That is part of the beauty of the BSI’s publishing portfolio, and people should certainly take this into consideration when thinking about where to submit.
What challenges and opportunities do you anticipate for the journal in the coming four years?
I would say one of the biggest challenges is simply to attract the best quality research. There are so many immunologists out there who should be thinking of CEI as their journal of choice, for whom we are simply the best fit. Good quality reviews and commentary will be key here, and if we can find the right channels to let people know about our aims, scope and benefits, I have no doubt at all that we will have an even more interactive and dynamic journal!