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Research Division: Molecular Immunology

Molecular Immunology—a Sub-Division of Immunology

Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in immune reactions during homeostasis and after immune activation is of fundamental importance. These mechanisms are often strictly controlled, on a cell-specific basis, since deregulated or exacerbated immune reactions lead to tissue destruction, autoimmune disease, and chronic inflammatory responses. On the other hand, a suppressed immune response does allow for prolonged transplant tolerance, though obviously presenting a major challenge in cancer immunotherapy.

The Leibnitz Institute for Immunology is interested in identifying and characterizing new natural receptor-to-ligand systems that are capable of modulating immune reactions in vitro and in vivo, at both the cellular and molecular level. These immune-modulating mechanisms can then be translated into novel immunotherapies to control immune reactions. Furthermore, we aim to build synthetic receptor-to-ligand systems which are capable of redirecting the immune status during homeostasis and after immune activation.

  • Camara A, Lavanant AC, Abe J, Desforges HL, Alexandre YO, Girardi E, Igamberdieva Z, Asano K, Tanaka M, Hehlgans T, Pfeffer K, Pfeffer S, Mueller SN, Stein JV, Mueller CG. CD169+ macrophages in lymph node and spleen critically depend on dual RANK and LTbetaR signaling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Jan 18;119(3). PMID: 35031565

  • Cheng HW, Mörbe U, Lütge M, Engetschwiler C, Onder L, Novkovic M, Gil-Cruz C, Perez-Shibayama C, Hehlgans T, Scandella E, Ludewig B (2022). Intestinal fibroblastic reticular cell niches control innate lymphoid cell homeostasis and function. Nat Commun 13:2027. PMID: 35440118

  • Cheng HW, Onder L, Novkovic M, Soneson C, Lütge M, Pikor N, Scandella E, Robins MD, Miyazaki JI, Tersteegen A, Sorg U, Pfeffer K, Rülicke T, Hehlgans T, Ludewig B. (2019) Origin and differentiation trajectories of fibroblastic reticular cells in the splenic white pulp. Nat Commun. 10:1739. PMID: 30988302

  • Heini K, Gatjen M, Grau M, Stache V, Anagnostopoulos I, Gerlach K, Niesner RA, Cseresnyes Z, Hauser AE, Lenz P, Hehlgans T, Brink R, Westermann J, Dorken B, Lipp M, Lenz G, Rehm A, Hopken UE. (2014) Access to follicular dendritic cells is a pivotal step in murine chronic lymphocytic leukemia B cell activation and proliferation. Cancer Discov. 4: 1448. PMID: 25252690

  • Röhrl J, Huber B, Koehl GE, Geissler EK, Hehlgans T. (2012) Mouse ß-defensin 14 (Defb14) Promotes Tumor Growth by Inducing Angiogenesis in a CCR6-Dependent Manner. J Immunol. 188: 4931. PMID: 22504651

The Institute has numerous collaborations with research groups from all over the world—each funded in different ways. Most are financed from the University’s regular budget. Additionally, third-party funding can be applied for from public or private sources, such as the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) or other research sponsors.

For our Research Sub-Division Molecular Immunology, the most important third-party sponsor is:

 

 

TRR 305 – Transregio Regensburg Erlangen 

https://www.trr305.de/en/