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Dr. Julia Merkenschlager leads the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Collaboration and Competition at Harvard Medical School's Department of Immunology. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of lymphocyte interaction, particularly how B cells and T cells cooperate and compete during immune responses. 

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Before establishing her lab at Harvard in October 2024, Julia Merkenschlager was a postdoctoral associate in Dr. Michel C. Nussenzweig's Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at Rockefeller University. There, she investigated B cell mutation strategies within germinal centers, and GC T cell dynamics which are crucial for antibody affinity maturation. It was here she met Lilian and Amy, now core members of her team today at Harvard Medical school (see below). Together, with Ronak they now explore the unknowns of the germinal center response.

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