Collaborative Research Centre extended
New perspective on underestimated immune cells
- von Martin Rolshoven
- 15.05.2026
The German Research Foundation is funding the Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio (TRR) 332 “Neutrophils: Development, Behavior and Function” for a second funding period with around EUR 13 million. Scientists from the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen are playing a key role in TRR 332.
The researchers are investigating the previously underestimated diversity and function of neutrophils—the most common white blood cells. For a long time, these immune cells were considered short-lived and functionally uniform. However, recent research has shown that neutrophils play central roles in chronic inflammation, cancer, and the maintenance of healthy tissue.
“With its interdisciplinary approach and excellent research infrastructure, Transregio 332 is making an important contribution to translating discoveries in immunobiology into innovative diagnostic and therapeutic strategies,” says Prof. Dr. Jadwiga Jablonska-Koch, site coordinator of CRC/TRR 332 at the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen.
In the first funding period, teams from the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), the University of Münster, and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, together with partner institutes, pooled their expertise in immunology, tumour biology, infection research, and imaging. The goal was to elucidate fundamental mechanisms of neutrophil biology. New insights into the regulation, activation, and disease-promoting functions of these cells were gained. Innovative imaging technologies enabled, for the first time, a detailed analysis of neutrophils in tissue.
In the second funding period, the research focus will shift to disease-relevant models, focusing on diseases of high societal and medical relevance such as vasculitis, cancer, and infections. The programme is supplemented by technologies for single-cell and tissue analysis as well as the new graduate school “NeutroTrain” for early-career researchers.
Further Principal Investigators at the UDE are Prof. Dr. Daniel Engel, Prof. Dr. Matthias Gunzer, Prof. Dr. Sven Brandau, Prof. Dr. Dirk M. Hermann, and Dr. Olga Shevchuk. The CRC is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Dr. Oliver Söhnlein from the Institute of Experimental Pathology at the University of Münster. Other partners include the Technical University of Dresden, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, and the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences – ISAS – e. V. in Dortmund.
Details on CRC/TRR 332: https://neutrophils.de/de/forschungsprojekte
Image Caption: View into the interior of an immune cell: Visible are the cell organelles of a neutrophil—endoplasmic reticulum (blue), lysosomes (yellow), mitochondria (violet), lipid droplets (cyan), and Golgi apparatus (green). Scale bar: 0.7 µm.
Further Information
Prof. Dr. Jadwiga Jablonska-Koch, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Hospital Essen, jadwiga.jablonska@uk-essen.de, Tel. 0201/723-3190
Editorial Department
Martin Rolshoven, Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen,
martin.rolshoven@uk-essen.de, Tel. 0201/723-6274