Speaker
Description
Neutrophils are the most abundant circulating leukocytes and first responders to infection and tissue injury. Once viewed as short-lived and homogeneous, they are now recognised as a dynamically reconfigurable immune compartment with connected phenotypic and functional states in homeostasis and disease [1]. In this talk, I will present various modelling and high-dimensional data-driven approaches that we have developed at the Mathematical Oncology Laboratory in close collaboration with other biomedical institutions [2-5], to decode neutrophil behaviour across sterile inflammation, infection and cancer. Data-driven state-space ‘behavioural landscapes’ from intravital microscopy reveal stereotyped migratory states and pathogenic vascular-associated programmes that can be pharmacologically tuned [2]. Age-structured PDE models linked to fate-mapping quantify tissue-dependent neutrophil lifetimes and predict prolonged persistence within tumours [3]. Single-cell trajectories support deterministic reprogramming of tumour-infiltrating neutrophils towards pro-angiogenic, immunosuppressive niches [4]. Finally, the transcriptomic compartment architecture (NeuMap) integrates multi-tissue single-cell atlases with dynamical modelling to map perturbation-specific trajectories and nominate regulators of effector programmes [5]. Together, these approaches provide mathematical tools to study neutrophil plasticity and a framework to rationally target neutrophil states in infection and disease.
Bibliography
@article{1,
title = {From complexity to consensus: {A} roadmap for neutrophil classification},
volume = {58},
issn = {10747613},
shorttitle = {From complexity to consensus},
url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1074761325003206},
doi = {10.1016/j.immuni.2025.07.011},
language = {en},
number = {8},
urldate = {2026-05-10},
journal = {Immunity},
author = {Ng, Lai Guan and Ballesteros, Ivan and Cassatella, Marco A. and Egeblad, Mikala and Fridlender, Zvi G. and Gabrilovich, Dmitry and Gao, Qiang and Granot, Zvi and Grieshaber-Bouyer, Ricardo and Grimes, H. Leighton and Hedrick, Catherine C. and Hidalgo, Andrés and Kaplan, Mariana J. and Kubes, Paul and Ling, Guang Sheng and Lu, Liming and Luo, Hongbo R. and Mayadas, Tanya N. and Moutsopoulos, Niki M. and Ng, Melissa and Nigrovic, Peter A. and Ostuni, Renato and Pittet, Mikael J. and Quail, Daniela F. and Silvestre-Roig, Carlos and Soehnlein, Oliver and Udalova, Irina A. and Xue, Ruidong and Zhang, Ning and Kwok, Immanuel},
month = aug,
year = {2025},
pages = {1890--1903},
}
@article{2,
title = {Behavioural immune landscapes of inflammation},
volume = {601},
issn = {0028-0836, 1476-4687},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04263-y},
doi = {10.1038/s41586-021-04263-y},
language = {en},
number = {7893},
urldate = {2026-05-10},
journal = {Nature},
author = {Crainiciuc, Georgiana and Palomino-Segura, Miguel and Molina-Moreno, Miguel and Sicilia, Jon and Aragones, David G. and Li, Jackson Liang Yao and Madurga, Rodrigo and Adrover, José M. and Aroca-Crevillén, Alejandra and Martin-Salamanca, Sandra and Del Valle, Alfonso Serrano and Castillo, Sandra D. and Welch, Heidi C. E. and Soehnlein, Oliver and Graupera, Mariona and Sánchez-Cabo, Fátima and Zarbock, Alexander and Smithgall, Thomas E. and Di Pilato, Mauro and Mempel, Thorsten R. and Tharaux, Pierre-Louis and González, Santiago F. and Ayuso-Sacido, Angel and Ng, Lai Guan and Calvo, Gabriel F. and González-Díaz, Iván and Díaz-de-María, Fernando and Hidalgo, Andrés},
month = jan,
year = {2022},
pages = {415--421},
}
@article{3,
title = {The local microenvironment drives activation of neutrophils in human brain tumors},
volume = {186},
issn = {00928674},
url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0092867423009777},
doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2023.08.043},
language = {en},
number = {21},
urldate = {2026-05-10},
journal = {Cell},
author = {Maas, Roeltje R. and Soukup, Klara and Fournier, Nadine and Massara, Matteo and Galland, Sabine and Kornete, Mara and Wischnewski, Vladimir and Lourenco, Joao and Croci, Davide and Álvarez-Prado, Ángel F. and Marie, Damien N. and Lilja, Johanna and Marcone, Rachel and Calvo, Gabriel F. and Santalla Mendez, Rui and Aubel, Pauline and Bejarano, Leire and Wirapati, Pratyaksha and Ballesteros, Iván and Hidalgo, Andrés and Hottinger, Andreas F. and Brouland, Jean-Philippe and Daniel, Roy T. and Hegi, Monika E. and Joyce, Johanna A.},
month = oct,
year = {2023},
pages = {4546--4566.e27},
}
@article{4,
title = {Deterministic reprogramming of neutrophils within tumors},
volume = {383},
issn = {0036-8075, 1095-9203},
url = {https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf6493},
doi = {10.1126/science.adf6493},
language = {en},
number = {6679},
urldate = {2026-05-10},
journal = {Science},
author = {Ng, Melissa S. F. and Kwok, Immanuel and Tan, Leonard and Shi, Changming and Cerezo-Wallis, Daniela and Tan, Yingrou and Leong, Keith and Calvo, Gabriel F. and Yang, Katharine and Zhang, Yuning and Jin, Jingsi and Liong, Ka Hang and Wu, Dandan and He, Rui and Liu, Dehua and Teh, Ye Chean and Bleriot, Camille and Caronni, Nicoletta and Liu, Zhaoyuan and Duan, Kaibo and Narang, Vipin and Ballesteros, Iván and Moalli, Federica and Li, Mengwei and Chen, Jinmiao and Liu, Yao and Liu, Lianxin and Qi, Jingjing and Liu, Yingbin and Jiang, Lingxi and Shen, Baiyong and Cheng, Hui and Cheng, Tao and Angeli, Veronique and Sharma, Ankur and Loh, Yuin-han and Tey, Hong Liang and Chong, Shu Zhen and Iannacone, Matteo and Ostuni, Renato and Hidalgo, Andrés and Ginhoux, Florent and Ng, Lai Guan},
month = jan,
year = {2024},
pages = {eadf6493},
}
@article{5,
title = {Architecture of the neutrophil compartment},
volume = {649},
issn = {0028-0836, 1476-4687},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09807-0},
doi = {10.1038/s41586-025-09807-0},
language = {en},
number = {8098},
urldate = {2026-05-10},
journal = {Nature},
author = {Cerezo-Wallis, Daniela and Rubio-Ponce, Andrea and Richter, Mathis and Pitino, Emanuele and Kwok, Immanuel and Marteletto, Giovanni and Guanolema-Coba, Ana Cristina and Shih, Changming and Huang, Run-Kai and Moraga, Ana and Bravo, Natalia Borbaran and Doré, Samuel and Callejas, Sergio and Aragonés, David G. and Jiménez-Carretero, Daniel and Martin, Daniel and Ovadia, Samuel and Vicanolo, Tommaso and Crainiciuc, Georgiana and Sicilia, Jon and Deng, Tong and Martin, Anjelica and Zhang, Jing and Cuartero, Maria Isabel and Giraldo, Diego Moncada and Garcia-Culebras, Alicia and Aroca-Crevillen, Alejandra and Martín-Salamanca, Sandra and Torroja, Carlos and Ruiz, Max and Ruano, Irene and Ng, Melissa S. F. and Hou, Jian and Wang, You and Zhang, Ming and Pu, Jun and Herruzo, Ana and Van Oordt, David Chang and Chang, Seokyoon and Downie, Alexander E. and Chen, Fei and Graham, Andrea L. and Gause, William C. and Fiset, Pierre O. and Spicer, Jonathan D. and Heyn, Holger and Zuriaga, Maria A. and Bernal, Juan A. and Udalova, Irina A. and Moro, Maria A. and De Bock, Katrien and Dopazo, Ana and Fuster, Jose J. and Sánchez-Cabo, Fátima and Nieto, Juan C. and Calvo, Gabriel F. and Skokowa, Julia and Soehnlein, Oliver and Quail, Daniela F. and Walsh, Logan A. and Ng, Lai Guan and Hidalgo, Andrés and Ballesteros, Iván},
month = jan,
year = {2026},
pages = {1003--1012},
}
