University Medical Center (UMC) Mainz

Our immune system works in an orchestrated manner to protect us against pathogens and foreign substances. Failure of this system leads to chronic infection, autoimmune diseases or cancer. In our group “Immunomodulation” at the Paul Klein Center for Immune intervention at the UMC, we investigate how immune cells can be influenced by changes in metabolism and how metabolic pathways can be targeted for therapeutic purposes. Additionally, we study how metabolism influences posttranslational modifications in immune cells and thus influences immune cell function. The focus of our work is the balance between regulatory T cells and inflammatory T cells and their activation by dendritic cells in different infection, cancer and autoimmune disease models. In this context, we have previously demonstrated that the development of Th17 cells depends on de novo fatty acid synthesis (FAS), and that this pathway has therapeutic potential in autoimmune diseases and GvHD. In addition, we showed that activation of the FAS pathway in T cells also has implications during infection, in which excessive protective immune responses can lead to unwanted tissue destruction. Recently, we published new studies on how fatty acid metabolism influences other immune cell subsets such as Tregs or dendritic cells.

Positions held

• Since 2020: W2 University Professor for Immunomodulation, Institute of Molecular Medicine, University Hospital, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
• 2014 - 2019: Group Leader, Institute of Infection Immunology, TWINCORE, Hannover Medical School, Germany
• 2010 - 2014: Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Infection Immunology, TWINCORE, Hannover Medical School, Germany
• 2004 - 2009: Institute of Immunology (Director: Prof. Dr Thomas Kamradt), Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
• 2001 - 2003: Reproductive Immunology Lab (Prof. Margni), Institute of Study of Humoral Immunity (IDEHU) CONICET-University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Education

• 2004 - 2009: PhD (Dr. rer nat) in Immunology, Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany
• 1996 - 2002: Graduate studies in Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina