Parasitic worms help Professor Clarissa Prazeres da Costa and her team better understand the human immune system in order to find solutions to global health problems.
Why do blood clots develop in the first place—and why do they tend to recur? LMU researcher Konstantin Stark believes that the answers lie in the immune system.
At RCI, the Regensburg Center for Interventional Immunology, international research groups develop immunotherapies and cellular therapies in order to help treating patients suffering from tumors, chronic inflammation or autoimmunity.
From junior research group leader to full professor and spokesperson of the Research Center for Infectious Diseases (ZINF) at the University of Würzburg. This is the scientific career path of Cynthia Sharma.
Study identifies new prospects for women with autoimmune diseases
The DFG is providing 2.2 million euros for Tom Beneke’s Emmy Noether Junior Research Group at the University of Würzburg. He is investigating how Leishmania parasites, transmitted by sand flies, spread throughout the body.
Cytokinins, a class of plant hormones, are also present in the bodies of humans and other mammals. A recent study conducted at the University of Würzburg has revealed that these compounds are not acquired solely through dietary intake, suggesting the existence of additional endogenous or alternative sources within mammalian systems.
Immunotherapies are a promising approach in the fight against cancer. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed a lab-on-a-chip system called CellTrap. It makes it possible to observe the interactions between immune cells and cancer cells at the single-cell level. The method is intended to help better understand fundamental processes in cancer immunology and answer key questions.
Certain immune responses can initiate tissue damage in the liver. In the journal “Nature Communications”, Professor Dominic Grün’s team highlights potential countermeasures.
Genetically modified immune cells can offer precious additional time to patients with advanced multiple myeloma. However, these therapies lose their impact as the molecules on cancer cells that immune cells recognize gradually vanish. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now identified one of the molecular mechanisms behind this process. In an initial study they succeeded in blocking it using an existing cancer drug.
