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Dr Natividad Garrido Mesa

Lecturer in Pharmacology

University of East London, Health, Sport and Bioscience

Nati Garrido recently joined the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience as a Lecturer in Pharmacology. She teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and has research interests in the fields of pharmacology and mucosal immunology. 

    Natividad Garrido Mesa graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Granada, Spain, in 2007. In 2008 she enrolled in a Masters in Pharmaceutical Care and she started working in the Department of Pharmacology, within the group “Pharmacology of Natural Products”, where she developed her PhD project as a recipient of a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (2008-2011). She obtained a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2011, for which she was later awarded an Extraordinary Doctorate Award. As a PhD fellow she was a visiting scientist at the Department of
    Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Leiden University Medical Center, (Holland, 2009), the Department of Immunology at Harvard University (USA, 2010), and the Department of Immunology at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland, 2012), for three short research internships. In 2012 she was awarded a Fellowship from the Ramon Areces Foundation (Spain) to conduct her postdoctoral studies at the Department of  Experimental Immunobiology at King’s College London (UK), where she has been a Research Associate for the last four years (2012-2016). She has recently joined UEL as a Lecturer in Pharmacology.  



    PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (University of Granada, 2011)
    Masters in Pharmaceutical Care (University of Granada, 2008)
    BSc in Pharmacy (University of Granada, 2007)

    Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy, UK (2016)
    Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher Education (University of Granada, 2012)
    Postgraduate Certificate in Education C.A.P. (University of Granada, 2008)

    Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. UK Home Office Personal Licence holder (2012)
    Postgraduate Certificate on Laboratory Animal Science for biomedical researchers. FELASA C (2011)
    Visiting Lecturer, King's College London (UK)
    Co-editor of the Pharmacology series (Portaleditions, Spain)
    Serving as reviewer for scientific journals
    Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2016)
    Member of the British Society of Immunology (2013-present)
    Member of the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (2012-present)
    Member of the Spanish Society for Pharmacology (2009-present)


    Overview

    Nati’s research work has been focused on the study of the regulation of mucosal immune responses in the context of intestinal inflammation and the validation of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD).

    During her PhD, she evaluated the intestinal anti-inflammatory activity of immunomodulatory antibiotics in experimental models of IBD, with a strong focus on uncovering their effects on the altered immune response and the intestinal microbiota.

    During the last for years she has dedicated her research to the understanding of the transcriptional control of Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILC) function and lineage commitment. In particular, she has been working towards unveiling the role of the transcription factor T-bet in regulating ILC plasticity and its implications in protective and pathogenic intestinal immune responses.

    She has also participated as a co-investigator in a variety of research projects searching for pharmacological alternatives for the treatment of other inflammatory and autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, with a particular interest in natural compounds (probiotics, prebiotics and medicinal plants).

    She has develop expertise in the preclinical evaluation drugs in models of immunologically driven disease both in vivo and in vitro. She has experience with induced and spontaneous animal models of disease, genetically modified mice, tissue specific conditional knock outs and fluorescent reporter mice. She also has experience studying the effects of different compounds in vitro (cell lines, co-cultures, T cell and innate lymphoid cell culture) and ex vivo (organ cultures or explants). She has acquired a background in cellular immunology that complements her previous pharmacological training and contributes to her understanding of the pharmacology of immune-based therapies. She has extensive expertise in isolating immune cells from different tissue compartments, histological processing and assessment of mouse tissue, analysis of the intestinal microbiota and different cellular and molecular techniques (multicolour flow cytometry and intracellular cytokine and transcription factor staining, ELISA, western blotting, microRNAs and mRNA RT-PCR and gene arrays).


    Collaborators

    • UEL
    • External
    • Professor
      Graham M Lord. King's College London
    • Professor
      Julio J Galvez Peralta. University of Granada
    • <p class="title">Research Fellow</p>
      Yanira Riffo Vasquez. King's College London

    Research

    1. Rodriguez-Nogales A, Lozano-Pérez AA, Aznar-Cervantes SD, Algieri F, Garrido-Mesa J, Garrido-Mesa N et al., Effect of aqueous and particulate silk fibroin in a rat model of experimental colitis. Int J Pharm. 511(1):1-9 (2016).
    2. Algieri F, Rodriguez-Nogales A, Vezza T, Garrido-Mesa J, Garrido-Mesa N et al., Anti-inflammatory activity of hydroalcoholic extracts of Lavandula dentata L. and Lavandula stoechas L. J Ethnopharmacol. 190:142-158 (2016).
    3. Algieri F, Rodriguez-Nogales A, Garrido-Mesa, N et al., Intestinal anti-inflammatory activity of calcium pyruvate in the TNBS model of rat colitis: comparison with ethyl pyruvate. Biochem Pharmacol. 103:53-63 (2016).
    4. Powell N, Lo JW, Biancheri P, Vossenkämper A, Pantazi E, Walker AW, Stolarczyk E, Ammoscato F, Goldberg R, Scott P, Canavan JB, Perucha E, Garrido-Mesa N et al., Interleukin-6 Increases Production of Cytokines by Colonic Innate Lymphoid Cells in Mice and Patients with Chronic Intestinal Inflammation. Gastroenterology. 149(2):456-67 (2015).
    5. Garrido-Mesa J, Algieri F, Rodriguez-Nogales A, Utrilla MP, Rodriguez-Cabezas ME, Zarzuelo A, Ocete MA, Garrido-Mesa N, Galvez J. A new therapeutic association to manage relapsing experimental colitis: Doxycycline plus Saccharomyces boulardii. Pharmacol Res. 97:48-63 (2015).
    6. Rodríguez-Nogales A, Algieri F, Vezza T, Garrido-Mesa N, et al., The viability of Lactobacillus fermentum CECT5716 is not essential to exert intestinal anti-inflammatory properties. Food Funct. 6(4):1176-84 (2015).
    7. Lozano-Pérez AA, Rodriguez-Nogales A, Ortiz-Cullera V, Algieri F, Garrido-Mesa J, Zorrilla P, Rodriguez-Cabezas ME, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. Silk fibroin nanoparticles constitute a vector for controlled release of resveratrol in an experimental model of inflammatory bowel disease in rats. Int J Nanomedicine. 9:4507-20. (2014).
    8. Algieri F, Rodríguez-Nogales A, Garrido-Mesa N, et. al. Intestinal Anti-inflammatory Effects of Oligosaccharides Derived from Lactulose in the trinitrobenzenesulfonic Acid Model of Rat Colitis. J Agric Food Chem 62(19):4285-97 (2014).
    9. Algieri F, Rodriguez-Nogales A, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. Intestinal anti-inflammatory activity of the Serpylli herba extract in experimental models of rodent colitis. J Crohns Colitis; 8(8):775-88 (2014).
    10. Toral M, Gómez-Guzmán M, Jiménez R, Romero M,Sanchez M, Utrilla MP, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. The probiotic Lactobacillus coryniformis CECT5711 reduces vascular pro-oxydant and pro-inflammatory status in obese mice. Clin Sci (Lond).127(1):33-45 (2014).
    11. Garrido Mesa N, et al. Functional plasticity of Th17 cells: Implications in gastrointestinal tract function. Int Rev Immunol. 32:493-510 (2013).
    12. Cueto Sola M, Bailón E, Utrilla MP, Rodriguez Ruiz J, Garrido-Mesa N, et al., Active colitis exacerbates immune response to internalized food antigens in mice. Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 162 – 3 (2013)
    13. Garrido-Mesa N, et al. Minocycline: Far beyond an antibiotic. Br J Pharmacol. 169(2):337-52 (2013).
    14. Algieri F; Zorrilla P; Rodriguez-Nogales A; Garrido-Mesa N, et al. Intestinal anti-inflammatory activity of hydroalcoholic extracts of Phlomis purpurea L. and Phlomis lychnitis L. in the trinitrobenzenesulphonic acid model of rat colitis. J Ethnopharmacol. 19;146(3):750-9 (2013)
    15. Garrido-Mesa N, et al. What is behind the non-antibiotic properties of minocycline?. Pharmacol Res. 67: 18- 30 (2013).
    16. Detre C, Keszei M, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. SAP expression in invariant NKT cells is requisite for cognate help and dispensable for non-cognate support to B cells. Blood. 120(1):122-9 (2012).
    17. Bailón E, Cueto-Sola M, Utrilla P, Rodríguez-Ruiz J, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. A shorter and more specific oral sensitization-based experimental model of food allergy in mice. J Immunol Methods. 381(1-2):41-9 (2012).
    18. Witaicenis A, Luchini AC, Hiruma-Lima CA, Felisbino SL, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. Suppression of TNBS-induced colitis in rats by 4-methylesculetin, a natural coumarin: Comparison with prednisolone and sulphasalazine. Chem BioL Interact. 195, 76–85 (2012).
    19. Garrido-Mesa N, et al. The association of minocycline and the probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 results in an additive beneficial effect in a DSS model of reactivated colitis in mice. Biochem Pharmacol. 82, 1891–1900 (2011).
    20. Bailón E, Cueto-Sola M, Utrilla P; Nieto A, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. DNFB-DNS hapten-induced colitis in mice should not be considered a model of inflammatory bowel disease. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 17(10), 2087-101 (2011).
    21. Camuesco D, Rodríguez-Cabezas M, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. The intestinal anti-inflammatory effect of dersalazine sodium is related to a down-regulation in IL-17 production in experimental models of rodent colitis. Br J Pharmacol. 165(3), 729–740 (2012).
    22. Arribas B, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. The immunomodulatory properties of viable Lactobacillus salivarius ssp. salivarius CECT5713 are not restricted to the large intestine. Eur J Nutr. 51(3):365-74 (2012)
    23. Garrido-Mesa N, et al. The intestinal anti-inflammatory effect of minocycline in experimental colitis involves both its immunomodulatory and antimicrobial properties. Pharmacol Res. 63(4), 308-319 (2011).
    24. Rodríguez-Cabezas ME, Camuesco D, Arribas B, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. The combination of fructooligosaccharides and resistant starch shows prebiotic additive effects in rats. Clin Nutr. 29(6), 832-839 (2010).
    25. Arribas B, Suárez-Pereira E, Ortiz Mellet C, García Fernández JM, Buttersack C, Rodríguez-Cabezas ME, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. Di-D-Fructose dianhydride (DFA)-enriched caramels: effect on colon microbiota, inflammation and tissue damage in TNBS-induced colitic rats. J Agric Food Chem. 58(10), 6476-6484 (2010).
    26. Bailón E, Cueto-Sola M, Utrilla P, Rodríguez-Cabezas ME, Garrido-Mesa N, et al. Butyrate in vitro immune-modulatory effects might be mediated through a proliferation-related induction of apoptosis. Immunobiology 215(11), 863-873 (2010).

    Publications


    Funding

    Portfolio

    - Biology of Disease (BS5001)

    - Systems Pharmacology (BS6011)

    - Clinical Microbiology and Immunology (BS6005)

    - Infection and Immunity (BS5005)

    - Immunology (BS5009)

    Teaching