Nadia Guerra

Dr. Nadia Guerra is an Associate Professor and head of the 'Inflammation and Cancer Immunity' lab at Imperial College London's Department of Life Sciences (Faculty of Natural Sciences). Her research focuses on Natural Killer (NK) cell receptors' roles in immunopathologies and cancer, particularly the paradoxical tumor-promoting role of NKG2D in inflammation-driven cancers. She collaborates with institutions like AstraZeneca and the Institute of Chemical Biology to develop novel cancer diagnostics and therapies.

Education: BS in Biochemistry (University of Marseille Luminy), MRes in Transplant Immunology (University of Besancon), PhD in Immunology (University of Paris VI). Postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley (David Raulet lab). Established her lab in 2009 with a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship.

Research Interests: NK cell biology, cancer immunity, inflammation-driven tumorigenesis, NKG2D receptor signaling, nanomaterials for immunotherapy, and microbiome-cancer interactions. Recent work explores tyramine's role in post-bariatric surgery colon cancer risks and nano-platforms for cancer biomarker detection.

Notable achievements include generating NKG2D-deficient mice (Immunity 2008), discovering NKG2D's pro-tumorigenic role in liver cancer (Nat Comm 2017), and securing CRI Technology Impact Award funding (2024). Her lab has trained over 10 PhD students/postdocs, with ongoing collaborations in multi-photon imaging and chemist-immunology interfaces.

Awards:

• Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship (2009)
• Cancer Research Institute (CRI) Technology Impact Award (2024)
• Society of Swedish Engineers (SIS) Award (2018)

Lab Collaborations: Works with Prof. David Pinato (Imperial Medicine), Dr. Joshua Edel (Chemistry), and UCL teams on interdisciplinary projects. Active in Imperial's Chemical Biology CDT and Immuno-Pathology Network.