Project area C: immune cell and organ responses

This project area focuses on the development and application of multiscale imaging strategies to study organ-specific immune cell responses to distinct sterile and bacterial inflammatory triggers in ischemia-reperfusion (heart, kidney), autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis and lupus erythematosus) and infections (sepsis, enteritis, peritonitis). Specifically, the effect of metabolic priming on monocyte function, the role of phagocytes in acute versus chronic inflammation and apoptotic cell clearance, molecular mechanisms of myeloid infiltration in peritonitis, and the metabolic dynamics of immune and renal cells in acute kidney injury will be studied. Furthermore, the interplay of platelets, NET formation and degradation, and myeloid immune cells in lymphatic tissue response during enteritic acute versus chronic Yersinia infections will be analysed.

Projects

  • PI-2023-01: Containing the infection – Visualization and analysis of the influence of innate immune cells on the intestinal barrier during a bacterial infection
    Project leader: Christopher Margraf (Institute of Infectiology, ZMBE)
    Project term: 01/2024 - 12/2024
  • PEP-2022-05 – Functional analysis of cardiac resident hematopoietic cells during post-injury recovery in zebrafish
    Principal investigator: Felix Gunawan (Institute of Cell Biology)
    Project term: 01/2023–12/2023
  • CS-Starter-2023-02 – The role of hyperphosphatemia in endothelial inflammation
    Clinician scientist: Göran Ramin Boeckel (Department of Nephrology and Rheumatology)
    Mentor: Marcus Brand
    Project term: 05/2023–04/2024
  • CS-2021-01 – Cellular and metabolic imaging of monocyte dynamics during arthritis in vivo
    (related CRC project C01)
    Clinician scientist: Nadine Heiden (Department of Nuclear Medicine & European Institute for Molecular Imaging)
    Scientific and clinical mentors: Johannes Roth, Michael Schäfers
    Project term: 01/2022 - 12/2024
  • MedK MD project – Untersuchung des Immunzellmetabolismus mittels radioaktiver Substrate
    (related to CRC project C01)
    Medical doctoral researcher: Lea Jansen (European Institute for Molecular Imaging)
    Mentor: Michael Schäfers
    Project term: 02/2022 - 01/2023
  • PI-2022-01 – NEUTROMARROW – Multiplex imaging of neutrophil
    development and maturation in the bone marrow

    Project leader: Mathis Richter (Institute of Experimental Pathology, ZMBE)
    Project term: 04/2022 - 03/2023

  • ST-2022-01 – Unravelling the dynamic interplay between neutrophils and
    macrophages following Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection

    Project leader: Samriti Sharma (Institute of Infectiology, ZMBE)
    Project term: 04/2022 - 03/2023