Our lab is interested in analyzing immune cells in the tissue context, using state-of-the art, functional intravital microscopy and histocytometry approaches. In addition to reacting to stimuli from hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells, for example via direct cell-cell contacts or via soluble mediators, immune cells are exposed to a variety of other stimuli present in the tissue, among them mechanical cues. The significance of those stimuli for immune cells has not been explored in detail. Recently, a role for the mechanosensor Piezo1 in shaping myeloid cell activation has been identified. Here, we aim to understand how mechanical cues in barrier tissues affect the function of myeloid cells. We will focus the lamina propria of the intestine, a tissue that in the healthy organism is constantly subjected to contractions (peristalsis). We hypothesize that this mechanical stimulation impacts on the phenotype of macrophages in the lamina propria. As alterations in peristalsis appear in certain situations, such as parasitic infections, we aim to test to what extent mechanosensing in macrophages affects their function under those conditions.
Our laboratory focuses on the immunological and molecular pathomechanisms of the skin with the aim to identify approaches for personalized and preventive medicine. One group of our translational research interests are chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases of the skin.
We study development and function of the innate immune system, in particular of innate lymphoid cells (ILC). A current focus is to obtain a molecular understanding of how the innate immune system, by integrating environmental signals, contributes to tissue physiology and health. Recent studies have revealed ever more intriguing relationships between innate immune system components and basic developmental and biologic processes that are likely to reveal unsuspected pathways by which the immune system might be plumbed to improve health and health span.
Our laboratory investigates the interaction of dietary factors with the gut microbiota and the host, especially with the host’s immune system, in the context of cardiovascular and renal disease. Arterial hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are of particular interest, as both conditions are associated with a significantly increased cardiovascular risk.
Our research aims to understand the role of tissue-resident cells of the innate immune system in the prevention of chronic inflammatory diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and inflammatory bowel disease. Our goal is to identify mechanisms that may inhibit the transition from homeostasis to chronic inflammatory disease and to determine the role of tissue-resident cells of the innate immune system in this process.
Our lab studies the role of immune cells and inflammatory processes in the liver. Infiltration and activation of immune cells play an important role during the development of acute and chronic liver diseases, but the exact molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to the development of liver inflammation have not been fully elucidated until now. We are exploring the inflammatory processes during acute liver failure, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and steatohepatitis (NASH), liver cirrhosis and liver cancer in order to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Furthermore, a better understanding of how both pro- and anti-inflammatory pathways can disrupt the homeostatic processes of a healthy liver is critical for the prevention of liver diseases in the first place.
Resilience to infections is equally defined by the host’s ability to clear the infecting pathogen and to resolve and mitigate secondary injury, and thus to restore and maintain tissue homeostasis. These physiological processes of resolution and repair, however, intersect with pathogenic responses in chronic organ fibrosis.
Biomarkers play a central role in detecting chronic inflammatory diseases before irreversible tissue damage occurs. These measurable, ideally disease-specific, indicators can be detected in the organism even before the onset of symptoms. For example, neutrophil elastase (NE), a serine protease secreted by activated neutrophils and essential for the innate immune response to pathogen infections, already serves as a biomarker for certain chronic inflammatory diseases of the respiratory and digestive tracts
Our laboratory focuses on the mechanisms involved in maintaining oxalate homeostasis. Oxalate is a component of various foods, found in different vegetables, nuts, but also in tea and coffee. High urinary oxalate concentrations lead to kidney stones, the second most common kidney disease after hypertension. Oxalate represents the most common component of kidney stones.
Type 2 immune responses promote tissue homeostasis as well as tissue remodeling and protect against infections with macroparasites but can become detrimental when triggered against non-infectious environmental stimuli