Gillian Griffiths

Gillian Griffiths is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the fundamental cell biological mechanisms of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), including polarized secretion of cytolytic proteins, immune synapse dynamics, and ectocytosis-driven T cell receptor regulation. She investigates organelle coordination (centrosome, lysosomes, mitochondria) during immune responses and its implications for cancer immunotherapy, with recent work on CAR T cell optimization and transcriptional adaptation in T cells.

• PhD: University of Cambridge, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (1984)
• Postdoc: Stanford University
• Former Director: Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (2002-2017)

Her work combines genetics, transcriptomics, biochemistry, and high-resolution microscopy to reveal parallels between immune synapses and cilia, roles for Hedgehog signaling, and novel mitochondrial translation requirements for sustained CTL killing. Key projects explore ectocytosis as a universal receptor signaling termination mechanism and energy metabolism defects in immunodeficiency syndromes.

Awarded the Royal Society Buchanan Medal (2019), she is a Fellow of the Royal Society (2013), EMBO (2006), and Academy of Medical Sciences (2005). Her lab operates at the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine (295 Congress Avenue, New Haven, CT 06510) with administrative support from Emily Dering.