Clatworthy Lab

Home of the Cambridge Tissue Immunity Laboratory

What do we do?

We use human organs and model systems, applying single cell genomic and advanced imaging technologies to investigate tissue Immunity across different organs. We are interested in how tissue environments influence resident immune cells, how these interactions change in disease and with age, and how tissue immunity is linked across organs. Our ultimate aim is to find new and better ways of diagnosing, monitoring and treating human diseases.

Research

Kidney – We are decoding the development, function and interactions of immune cells in the human kidney in health, disease and ageing. We have a particular interest in how tissue immune cells work with epithelial cells to defend the kidney from infection but play pathogenic roles in autoimmune diseases like lupus nephritis or ANCA vasculitis and in kidney allograft rejection.
Bladder – We are investigating how immune-epithelial-fibroblast cell circuits work during homeostasis and in bladder infection, how this differs between men and women and changes with age.
CNS Border immunity – the organs of the central nervous system ((CNS), brain and spinal cord) are protected by the meninges and skull/vertebrae. We are investigating how immune cells in these border tissues protect the CNS from infection, contribute to CNS diseases (including depression/anxiety and neurodegeneration) and may be influenced by peripheral immune stimuli like gut inflammation or kidney infection.
Humoral immunity across tissues/organs – We are analysing B cells and plasma cells (cells responsible for antibody production) within different organs, investigating their potential roles beyond antibody production.
Immune responses in COVID-19 – We are studying immune cells in peripheral blood, adenoid and lung tissues to understand how the immune system responds to SARS-CoV2 and how this might contribute to pathology or might be harnessed in vaccine efforts.

We are committed to sharing our know-how and datasets, check out:

www.kidneycellatlas.org
www.CNSbordercellatlas.org
Dandelion BCR/TCR analysis - https://www.youtube.com/

Publications

Key publications:

Coates ML^, Richoz N^, Tuong ZK^, Bowyer GS^, Lee CYC, Ferdinand JR, Gillman E, McClure M, Dratva L, Teichmann SA, Jayne DR, Di Marco Barros R, Stewart BJ, Clatworthy MR. Temporal profiling of human lymphoid tissues reveals coordinated defense against viral challenge. Nat Immunol. 2025;26(2):215-229.
Fitzpatrick Z, Ghabdan Zanluqui N, Rosenblum JS, Tuong ZK, Lee CYC, Chandrashekhar V, Negro-Demontel ML, Stewart AP, Posner DA, Buckley M, Allinson KSJ, Mastorakos P, Chittiboina P, Maric D, Donahue D, Helmy A, Tajsic T, Ferdinand JR, Portet A, Peñalver A, Gillman E, Zhuang Z, Clatworthy MR*, McGavern DB*. Venous-plexus-associated lymphoid hubs support meningeal humoral immunity. Nature. 2024;62(8008):612-619.*co-corresponding
Suo C, Polanski K, Dann E, Lindeboom RGH, Vilarrasa Blasi R, Roser Vento-Tormo R, Haniffa M, Meyer KB, Tuong ZK*, Clatworthy MR*, Teichmann SA*. Single cell antigen receptor analysis reveals lymphocyte developmental origins. Nat Biotech. 2024;42(1):40-51.*co-corresponding.
Stewart AP*, Loudon KW, Routledge M, Lee CYC, Trotter P, Richoz N, Gillman E, Antrobus R, Mccaffrey J, Posner D, Conway-Morris A, Karet-Frankl FE,Clatworthy MR*. Neutrophil extracellular traps defend the kidney from ascending infection and are required for a positive leukocyte dipstick test. Science Translational Medicine. 2024; 16(766):eadh5090.
Suchanek O, Ferdinand JR, Tuong ZK, Wijeyesinghe S, Chandra A, Clauder AK, Almeida LN, Clare S, Harcourt K, Ward CJ, Bashford-Rogers R, Lawley T, Manz RA, Okkenhaug K, Masopust D, Clatworthy MR. Tissue-resident B cells orchestrate macrophage polarisation and function. Nat Commun. 2023;14(1):7081

Other publications:

Fitzpatrick Z, Frazer G, Ferro A, Clare S, Bouladoux N, Ferdinand JR, Tuong ZW, Negro-Demontel ML, Suchanek O, Tajsic T, Harcourt K, Scott K, Bashford-Rogers R, Helmy A, Reich DS, Belkaid Y,Lawley T, McGavern DB^†, Clatworthy MR^†. Gut-educated IgA plasma cells defend meningeal venous sinuses. Nature. 2020; Nov;587(7834):472-476. ^†co-corresponding.
Stewart BS*, Ferdinand JR*, Young MD, Mitchell TJ, Loudon KW, Riding AM, Richoz N, Frazer GL, Staniforth JU, Vieira Braga FA, Botting R, Popescu DM, Vento-Tormo R, Stephenson E, Cagan A, Farndon SJ, Polanski K, Efremova M, Green K, Velasco-Herrera M, Guzzo C, CollorD G, Mamanova L, Aho T, Armitage JN, Riddick AC, Mushtaq I, Farrell S, Rampling D, Nicholson J, Filby A, Burge J, LisgoS, Lindsay S, Bajenoff M, Warren AY, Stewart GD, SebireN, Coleman N, Haniffa M*, Teichmann SA*, Behjati S*, Clatworthy MR*. Spatio-temporal immune zonation of the human kidney. Science 2019;365(6460):1461-1466.
Castro-DopicoT, DennisonTW, FerdinandJR, MathewsRJ, Fleming A, CliftD, StewartBJ, JingC, StrongiliK, LabzinLI, MonkEJM, Saeb-ParsyK, BryantCE, ClareS, ParkesM, ClatworthyMR. Anti-commensal IgG drives intestinal inflammation and type 17 immunity. Immunity 2019;50(4):1099-1114.