Research Overview

The immune system's job is to ward off a multitude of invading pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and parasites. These defense mechanisms must be precisely controlled in order to prevent an excessive inflammatory response, which can lead to immunological pathologies and autoimmune diseases.
The working group "Molecular Infection Immunology" is concerned with mechanisms that are involved in the control of immune responses in infections, especially malaria and inflammatory processes. The focus is on T lymphocytes, which are divided into effector T cells and regulatory T cells. While effector T cells promote immune reactions, regulatory T cells have immunosuppressive abilities and are thus able to control immune responses. Based on molecular and functional investigations, we are working to identify target structures that allow the function of T cells to be modified for therapeutic applications. In addition to Neuropilin-1 and CD83, promising molecules are also members of the sphingolipid signaling pathway.
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