Ana María León Crespo

About

Ana María León Crespo is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Her work traces how spatial practices and transnational networks of power and resistance shape the modernity and coloniality of the Americas. Her research and teaching foreground the agency of populations under struggle and the multiple forms of bias embedded in the built environment and its histories. León is invested in collaborative approaches to learning, teaching, and writing, emphasizing the importance of multiple critical positions, particularly those of historically underrepresented groups, to ground understanding of history in the politics of coliberation. She is the author of 'Modernity for the Masses: Antonio Bonet’s Dreams for Buenos Aires' (University of Texas Press, 2021) and 'A Ruin in Reverse / Bones of the Nation' (ARQ, 2021). León has edited issues of academic journals such as Thresholds, The Architectural Theory Review, and e-flux Architecture, and her writing has been published in multiple journals and anthologies. She has organized actions at major art and architecture events, including the Venice Biennale and the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and has co-organized teaching workshops on feminist pedagogy, settler colonialism, and anti-racism in architectural history. Prior to her current position, she was Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture from MIT, a Master in Design…

Research topics

• Immunology
• Biology
• Virology
• Medicine
• Cell biology
• Biochemistry

Selected publications

• FcγR-mediated SARS-CoV-2 infection of monocytes activates inflammation

  Nature · 2022 · 573 citations

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Human HLA-G+ extravillous trophoblasts: Immune-activating cells that interact with decidual leukocytes

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2015-05-26 · 196 citations

  articleOpen access

  Invading human leukocyte antigen-G+ (HLA-G+) extravillous trophoblasts (EVT) are rare cells that are believed to play a key role in the prevention of a maternal immune attack on foreign fetal tissues. Here highly purified HLA-G+ EVT and HLA-G- villous trophoblasts (VT) were isolated. Culture on fibronectin that EVT encounter on invading the uterus increased HLA-G, EGF-Receptor-2, and LIF-Receptor expression on EVT, presumably representing a further differentiation state. Microarray and functiona…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The NK cell receptor NKp46 recognizes ecto-calreticulin on ER-stressed cells

  Nature · 2023-04-05 · 170 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Decidual NK Cells Transfer Granulysin to Selectively Kill Bacteria in Trophoblasts

  Cell · 2020 · 170 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The HLA-G cycle provides for both NK tolerance and immunity at the maternal–fetal interface

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2015-10-12 · 167 citations

  articleOpen access

  The interaction of noncytotoxic decidual natural killer cells (dNK) and extravillous trophoblasts (EVT) at the maternal-fetal interface was studied. Confocal microscopy revealed that many dNK interact with a single large EVT. Filamentous projections from EVT enriched in HLA-G were shown to contact dNK, and may represent the initial stage of synapse formation. As isolated, 2.5% of dNK contained surface HLA-G. However, surface HLA-G-negative dNK contained internalized HLA-G. Activation of dNK resu…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Judy Lieberman

  Harvard University

  34 shared

• Tamara Tilburgs

  Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

  29 shared

• Caroline Junqueira

  Fundação Oswaldo Cruz

  28 shared

• Jack L. Strominger

  Harvard University

  23 shared

• Luciana Costa

  Fundação Oswaldo Cruz

  17 shared

• Madalena Martins

  Hospital Santo António dos Capuchos

  16 shared

• Sumit Sen Santara

  16 shared

• Hao Wu

  Harvard University

  14 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Architecture

  Harvard University

  2009

• M.A., Architecture

  Harvard University

  2004

• B.A., Architecture

  University of California, Berkeley

  2001

Similar researchers at Harvard University

• Diane Davish-81
• John Mayh-57
• Ann Forsythh-47