Esther Vletter

Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC)

The role of my PhD project is to study the role of variable domain glycosylation in autoimmune diseases and B-cell lymphomas. These glycans are ubiquitously present on autoantibodies observed in some autoimmune diseases as well as certain B-cell lymphomas. In Follicular Lymphoma, variable domain glycans are postulated to convey a selective advantage through interaction with lectins and/or microbiota, whereas the contribution of variable domain glycans on autoantibodies is not known. Our aim now is to study variable domain glycans and to identify the commonalities and differences between variable domain glycans in autoimmune and malignant settings.

Publication:  Vletter EM, Koning MT, Scherer HU, Veelken H, Toes REM. A Comparison of Immunoglobulin Variable Region N-Linked Glycosylation in Healthy Donors, Autoimmune Disease and Lymphoma. Front Immunol. 2020;11:241. Published 2020 Feb 18. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2020.00241

Member of work package 3 and 6.