Tanya Dimova

Institute of Biology and Immunology of Reproduction IBIR-BAS, Bulgaria

VALIDATE Role:

Network Investigator

Research Keywords:

TB, BCG, mycobacterial L forms

Biography:

Dr. Tanya Dimova has defended her PhD thesis titled “Cellular immunity during epitheliochorial type of placenta formation” in IBIR and then has worked for 3 years as a Postdoc in the lab of Dr. D. Vermijlen in the Institute for Medical Immunology, ULB, Brussels, Belgium. Between 2005-2007 she won scholarships from Swedish Institute and Norland Cancer Foundation in Sweden and has worked for 1 and half year in the Dept for Clinical Immunology, Medical Faculty, Umea University in Sweden. In 2018 Dr. Dimova has been awarded with Fulbright stipend and invited as visiting scholar in the lab of Dr. Gil Mor, Dept of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reprod. Sci, School of Medicine, Yale University, USA for 5 months. There she has been involved in the bioengineering of 3D models of human placenta.

The previous studies of Tanya Dimova have been focused on the maternal immune response during both non-invasive and invasive types and implantation and on the role of maternal T regulatory cells for the establishment of immune tolerance towards the semi-allogeneic fetus. Later on she has studied gamma/delta T-cell immunity in human neonates and fetuses in the team of Dr. Vermijlen, showing for the first time that the immune system of the human mid-gestation fetus contains effector, pathogen-reactive γδ T cells with cytotoxic activity and Th1 cytokine profile. She has participated in European FEDER project (co-funded by GSK) for validation of a panel with biomarkers on γδ T cells in order to be used for immunotherapy in cancer patients. Currently, the research of Dr Dimova is focused on the role of γδ T cells in successful human pregnancy and γδ T-cell immunity in placentobiome of pregnant BCG-vaccinated women and in BCG vaccinated infants. Recently her group published in Nature Scientific Reports intriguing data showing that the placenta is not sterile and in BCG vaccinated pregnant women there is a mother-to-newborn placental transmission of mycobacterial L forms. These data suggest that BCG vaccination in the childhood of the woman may affect her placentobiome during pregnancy.

Dr. T. Dimova has publications in major international peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journals and in the leading international peer-reviewed journals such as PNAS, Sci Rep, AJRI, Int J of Mol Sci, J of Leukocyte Biology etc.

Key Publications:

Fetal public Vγ9Vδ2 T cells expand and gain potent cytotoxic functions early after birth , Dimova T et al, in Proc Natl Acad Sci

Trophoblasts promote induction of a regulatory phenotype in B cells that can protect against detrimental T cell–mediated inflammation, Dimova T et alin the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology

Web Links of Interest:

IBIR Website