Functional immunology of infection and vaccine induced responses

Mycobacterial infections present a major global threat, in particular in low-and middle-income countries where they afflict individuals in their most productive stage in life. TB alone kills 1.5M people each year, MDR TB is the most important source of global AMR. Prevention of infection and disease would contribute significantly to reduce disease- as well as economic burden. Ultimately, immunoprophylaxis by novel vaccines or vaccination strategies as well as chemoprophylaxis of those most at risk of disease, will be essential to contain mycobacterial diseases.

Immunological characterization and understanding of host responses towards Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the central focus of our work. We employ multi-omic-analysis of soluble markers (proteomics, metabolomics), circulating cell subsets (immunomics), gene expression (transcriptomics, epigenetics), as well as functional read outs and mechanistic studies to identify biomarkers based on improved understanding of host immunity.

Our strong background in immunology of infectious diseases permits detailed assessment of vaccine induced immune responses, for novel vaccine candidates as well as well-known vaccines such as BCG. Our laboratory contributes to monitoring of clinical vaccination studies performed by other institutes, including extensive (spectral) flowcytometric phenotyping as well as functional effector response measurements using the Mycobacterial Growth Inhibition Assay (MGIA).