Dr Mario Manresa

  • Lecturer/Assistant Professor (Ad Astra Fellow) (University College Dublin)
  • Location: Room 256, Forehall Gilbert Scott Building

Title: Investigating trained immunity in intestinal fibroblasts: The bad memories of inflammation?

Abstract: Fibroblasts have gained momentum as regulators of immune responses in chronic inflammatory diseases across tissues. In inflammatory bowel disease, a group of debilitating chronic inflammatory disorders of the intestinal tract, inflammatory fibroblasts accumulate in patients that present with resistance to therapy and develop complications. This has made fibroblasts attractive cellular targets for therapeutic development, which requires a better understanding of the mechanisms by which these cells acquire and maintain pathogenic phenotypes. In my seminar, I will discuss evidence from my research lab suggesting the involvement of cytokines of the TNF superfamily of factors in promoting inflammatory fibroblast-monocyte interactions and in the acquisition of epigenetically-mediated inflammatory memory in fibroblasts.


Bio: Dr Mario Manresa completed his PhD in University College Dublin (2016) under the supervision of Professor Cormac Taylor. He then completed post-doctoral trainings in Harvard Medical School (2017) and in the University of California in San Diego (2018-2022). In 2022, he returned to UCD as an Assistant Professor of Immunology and established his independent laboratory with funding from Research Ireland and the UCD Ad Astra fellows program. Through his career, Dr Manresa has studied the molecular mechanisms driving fibroblast responses in chronic inflammation, including studies in eosinophilic esophagitis and inflammatory bowel disease. His lab combines translational and molecular immunology approaches to study how cytokines regulate cell intrinsic mechanisms of fibroblast response during inflammation as well as extrinsic interactions with epithelium and mononuclear phagocytes. 

First published: 16 September 2025

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