Multinucleated giant cells are a hallmark of granulomatous inflammation. Granulomas are chronic, localized inflammatory reactions and form when the immune system attempts to fend off and isolate an infectious pathogen or a foreign body. Multinucleated giant cells are found in most granulomatous diseases including tuberculosis, schistosomiasis and in the host immune response to implants. Even [...]

Our research group is interested in the immune responses raised against the helminth parasite Schistosoma mansoni, the causative agent of Bilharziosis, a common disease in developing countries with a current rate of 200-300 million infected people. Since we have established the complete cycle in our lab we have the opportunity to analyze the pathognomonic changes [...]

In retrospective, several laboratories have contributed to the discovery that the endosomally expressed TLRs predominantly recognise pathogen-derived nucleic acids; for example, TLR3 senses double stranded (ds) RNA, TLR-7, -8 recognise single stranded (ss) RNA and TLR9 is activated by ss CpG-DNA. By serendipity, Tim Sparwasser observed in 1996/1997 that synthetic Oligonucleotides (ODN) rich in CpG-motifs [...]

Introduction The major focus of the Busch laboratory is to visualize and track antigen-specific T cell populations during in vivo antigen challenge. These studies are designed to increase our understanding of how T cell responses are regulated in vivo and how protective and long lasting immunity is established. This knowledge is of special interest for adoptive [...]

Introduction Innate immune cells detect invading bacterial pathogens by the recognition of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (pamps). Toll-like receptors (TLR), but also NACHT-LRRs (NLR) and RNA-helicases are crucial to recognize bacteria. While TLRs induce the production of proinflammatory cytokines and type I interferons, NLRs like NALP, IPAF or NAIP control the release of mature IL-1β via activation [...]

Immunologists commonly divide the immune system into two distinct ‘innate’ and ‘adaptive’ entities. The innate branch, regarded as the ‘inborn’ part of the immune system, has evolved to provide a rapid and broad first response to infection. Its fast, but rigid character sets it apart from the adaptive response, which is flexible and lasting, but [...]

An ever increasing number of immunocompromised patients (mainly due to secondary immune defects caused by the HIV pandemic, organ transplantation and intensified immunosuppressive treatment strategies for cancer and autoimmune diseases) remind clinicians every day that strategies to reconstitute the human immune system are highly warranted. Even though immunologists have used mouse models successfully during the [...]

In our laboratory we study how the immune system learns to avoid attacking self and why this self-tolerance breaks down in autoimmunity. We are using the mouse as model and generate new models for our research and colleagues by use of transgenesis and gene targeting. Also, we provide the service of a transcriptomics facility including [...]