Roger Geiger
Studies how metabolism regulates T-cell responses against tumours; first author of the study showing that raising L-arginine shifts human T cells towards oxidative metabolism and longer survival, an effect the authors found to be independent of mTOR.
Group leader, Systems Immunology, IRB Bellinzona (since 2017), and Associate Professor, USI · proteomics training in Matthias Mann's group, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich (2016) · SystemsX postdoc with Antonio Lanzavecchia, IRB Bellinzona (from 2011) · MSc and PhD (with Ari Helenius), ETH Zurich
Systems Immunology group, Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Università della Svizzera italiana (Bellinzona, Switzerland) ↗ Lab lineagetrained under Antonio Lanzavecchia →
Roger Geiger was first author of the 2016 Cell study (GEI2016) from Antonio Lanzavecchia's lab. Activated human T cells use up their intracellular L-arginine quickly; adding more shifted them from glycolysis towards oxidative phosphorylation and produced central-memory-like cells that survived longer. Three nuclear proteins (BAZ1B, PSIP1 and TSN) were identified as L-arginine sensors. In mice, L-arginine-treated T cells slowed the growth of a transplanted melanoma. The authors report that this survival effect did not go through mTOR: L-arginine did not change S6K1 or 4E-BP phosphorylation, and mTOR enters the paper only as a comparison.
Geiger did his master's and PhD at ETH Zurich, the PhD with Ari Helenius on how non-enveloped viruses cross cell membranes. He joined Lanzavecchia's lab at IRB in 2011 as a SystemsX postdoc, trained in mass-spectrometry proteomics with Matthias Mann in Munich in 2016, and started his own Systems Immunology group at IRB in 2017. He received an ERC Starting Grant and joined the EMBO Young Investigator Programme in 2022.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | M | L-Arginine Modulates T Cell Metabolism and Enhances Survival and Anti-tumor Activity GEI2016 First author: higher L-arginine makes activated human T cells more oxidative, more memory-like and longer-lived, through nuclear sensors rather than mTOR (human cells in culture, mouse tumour models). |
Co-authors in the Atlas
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Roger Geiger.
- Antonio Lanzavecchia Human immunologist known for work on antigen presentation, memory T and B cells and methods for isolating human monoclonal antibodies; senior author of the study showing that L-arginine changes T-cell metabolism and survival independently of mTOR.
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