NEWS

On 23rd July, the McCarthy Lab took over the Flowers Building for an evening of good food, great drinks, and even better company- and what a fantastic evening it was! The star of the evening was undoubtedly the delicious homemade Pimm's, expertly mixedby our fantastic bartenders Grace, Cosme, and Julia. For those who preferred something different, there was no shortageof choice, with beer, Prosecco, wine, and a range of non-alcoholic drinks, all served alongside a tasty selec

Research led by Matevz Rumpret (Postdoc) and Jonas Lannergard (Lund University) together with Gunnar Lindahl, has been published in June 2025 in EMBO Molecular Medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42298213/ The standard approach to search for bacterial antigens for vaccination is to grow the bacteria in lab broth, analyse the proteins on their surface, and select key candidates. However, bacteria can behave differently during lab culture compared to during colonisation

Research led by Matevz Rumpret (Postdoc) and Alexander Lewis Marffy (PhD), together with Brian Geisbrecht lab (Kansas State University), has been published in June 2025 in Nature Communications. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42277001/ Big congratulations to everyone involved! Bacteria are known to interact with human inhibitory receptors. Yet, the mechanisms of interaction and function of these interactions remain poorly understood. Here, we asked whether bacteria target in

Congratulations to Gabriel on being awarded a Best Poster Prize at Strep GBI 2026 in Durham. Gabriel’s poster focused on his recent research onStreptococcus pyogenes and human receptor interactions. Gabriel used his poster to start conversations about his research and to receive input from experts in the field. Well done Gabriel!

The lab attended the inaugural Streptococcus Great Britain & Ireland 2026 meeting in Durham on March 30th and 31st. Alex co-chaired this meeting with Karrera Djoko (University of Durham) and Helge Dorfmueller (University of Dundee). Everyone had the opportunity to present some of their research, with Matevz presenting his research on LILRB3 targeting by Group B Streptococcus and Cosme giving a flash talk for his poster. Gabriel also kindly prepared a very thorough guided tour

Cosme's MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship application “Don’t Eat Me” to work in the group was funded. Here, Cosme will investigate if and how bacterial pathogens bind to the SIRPα immune receptor to hijack the ‘Don't Eat Me’ signal to evade phagocytosis by macrophage and survive within the host on the pathway to causing invasive infections. The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are among Europe’s most distinguished awards, supporting excellent scientists and international mobility. Th

A project led by Zuyi Fu (PhD student in our lab) and Matevž Rumpret (Postdoc in our lab), together with Irina Kube-Golovin and Mykola Lyndin (University of Duisburg-Essen), has been published in October 2025 in European Journal of Immunology. This work was carried out in collaboration with Bernhard B. Singer (University of Duisburg-Essen). Big congratulations to everyone involved! Human immune cells express activating receptors to trigger effector functions essential for mi

UROP is a research opportunities programme available to students from within and outside Imperial. This year we hosted two UROP students,...

In late June, we held our Lab Research Day 2025, which was designed to promote collaboration, innovation, and connection in our group....

As a wet lab, our group is aware of the impact our research activities have on the environment. We have therefore taken steps to embed...

We are looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to join the McCarthy lab. About the Research GBS diseases are a major cause of...

Congratulations to Erin who successfully defended her PhD thesis "The exploitation of CEACAM1 by streptococcal pathogens" on July 15th...

An outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) occurred in the UK in June 2024, leading to severe diarrhoea and hospital...

The Keystone Symposium on Inhibitory Receptors in Immune Homeostasis, Disease, and Therapy was held in the picturesque setting of...

Alec successfully defended his PhD thesis on 25th October 2023. Congratulations Alec! Thank you to examiners to Dr Angela Nobbs...

Our new paper from the lab - led by Sergio Arrendondo-Alonso (University of Oslo), George Blundell-Hunter (UCL), Joey Fu (Technician in...

Our new paper from Erin Catton - PhD student in the lab - was published in April in Nature Communications. Congratulations Erin and all...

We are looking for a motivated PhD student to identify and characterise new host-pathogen interactions using multidisciplinary...

The lab was well-represented by Alex, Erin and Alec at GRC Streptococcal Biology 2022 conference in Maine. We all really enjoyed...

Congratulations to Alec for being delivering a prize winning poster at the Rising Scientist Day 2022 in the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial...