Institute of Molecular Immunology

A second priming phase promotes high-affinity CD8 T cells by coordinating CD4 help and the relay of IL-2 in subfollicular LN niches. Congrats to @Wue_SI’s Kasia, Deeksha, @Kamu_Lab @GeorgGasteiger . science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Job alert in our Institute of Molecular Immunology! Two PhD positions in the field of immune regulation in autoimmune liver diseases. Both positions are embedded in the newly funded CRC1700 together with Hamburg. Please check our official job announcement for more information

We are proud to host the GASL Annual Meeting 2025 from 14-15 February in Munich. The GASL program with fanatastic talks and poster is out now! Here you can find it👇

We are proud to announce that the SFB 1700 Initiative "Immunregulation in der Leber: von Homöostase zur Krankheit" in which we will be part of will be funded for the next four years!🥳 Exciting opportunitiy to unravel immune-mediated mechanisms of autoimmune liver diseases!

@JBoettcherLab @dgfi_org Huge congrats to Jan and the whole @JBoettcherLab for this fantastic award! Well deserved! 🥳

I feel very honored that the lab’s work has been awarded with the Georges-Köhler-Prize 🏆 from the German Society of Immunology @dgfi_org! Teamwork is essential to our work. Thanks to the whole team, its talented current and past members, & our fantastic collaboration partners!

@pallett_lab Thank you, Laura! 🥰

Proud to have played an extremely small part in this! How liver T cells recognising antigen expressed on hepatocytes are functionally “curbed” by cAMP-PKA signalling in persistent infection 🎉🎉

@luglilab @Nature Thank you, Enrico!😊

@KnolleLab @Nature Congrats Percy!

We are excited that our study on the liver immune rheostat regulating CD8 T cell immunity in chronic HBV infection is published!🥳 @nature (nature.com/articles/s4158…)

Huge thanks to all of our collaborationpartners for their contributions and continuos help! @ProtzerLab @JBoettcherLab @maini_lab @LauerLab @LabOxenius

🔎HBV-specific CD8 T cells are in close & prolonged contact with liver sinusoidal endothelial cells when recognizing their antigen on hepatocytes. We termed this close & prolonged contact an immune rheostat, that increases cAMP-PKA signalling and hampers T cell effector functions

Huge thanks to all of our collaborationpartners for their contributions and continuos help! @ProtzerLab @JBoettcherLab @maini_lab @LauerLab @LabOxenius

Now online! Therapeutic potential of co-signaling receptor modulation in hepatitis B dlvr.it/T8SXy2

@iannaconelab @CellCellPress Wow, amazing study! Huge congratulations 🥳 another major step forward to sucessfully treat HBV patients!

💡Exciting news! Our latest research is now published in @CellCellPress: "Therapeutic potential of co-signaling receptor modulation in hepatitis B" 🚀🧵(1/11) 🔬Using mouse models, we traced the development and fate of dysfunctional CD8+ T cells, showing that hepatocellular priming induces a unique dysfunctional program distinct from classical exhaustion. (2/11) 🌟Key finding: Blocking co-inhibitory receptors like PD-1, CTLA-4, and LAG-3 showed minimal effect. However, activating 4-1BB and OX40 transformed dysfunctional CD8+ T cells into antiviral effectors. (3/11) 📊Prolonged antigenic stimulation leads to a self-renewing, long-lived population of CD8+ T cells with a unique transcriptional profile, including progenitor/stem-like and tissue-resident memory cells. (4/11) 📌In chronic settings, only 4-1BB maintained expression across all dysfunctional subsets, making it a prime candidate for therapeutic intervention in chronic HBV. (5/11) 🧬In HBeAg+ chronic patients, 4-1BB activation showed the highest potential to rejuvenate dysfunctional CD8+ T cells, making it a prime candidate for therapeutic intervention. (6/11) 🔑Our findings suggest that targeting all dysfunctional T cells, rather than only stem-like precursors, holds promise for treating chronic HBV infection. (7/11) 💡Mechanistic insights: 4-1BB activation enhances effector molecule expression and CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity, driving robust antiviral responses. (8/11) 🔍This study provides a comprehensive atlas of the co-signaling receptors induced in dysfunctional HBV-specific CD8+ T cells and reveals potential targets for therapeutic intervention. (9/11) 👏Huge thanks to our incredible team and collaborators, especially @frarro1, @Chiara_Laura91, Micol Ravà, @CaroCKrueger, @FichtMaria, Keigo Kawashima, and @CristianBecc who co-led the study. This work wouldn't be possible without you! (10/11) 📖Dive deeper into our study and its implications for HBV treatment. We're excited to hear your thoughts and engage in discussions! Full paper here: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S00… 💬📚 (11/11) @SanRaffaeleMI @MyUniSR @ERC_Research @AIRC_it @EMBO_YIP @ArmeniseHarvard

A single-cell in vivo CRISPR screen highlights genes driving T cell tissue adaptation and plasticity in autoimmunity @SciImmunology science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

NK cells undergo tissue redistribution during fasting, where the spleen and bone marrow microenvironments metabolically reprogram and prime NK cells to increase anti-tumor function @ScientistBecs @SunLab_Official @ImmunityCP cell.com/immunity/abstr…

Shape of naive T cells shapes the immune response. Pretty cool findings! ://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh8967

Excited to share our latest publication in @SciImmunology! We've uncovered an NK cell-mediated immune checkpoint (B7H6 : NKp30) that limits CAR T cell persistence, revealing new insights into immune regulation. #Immunology @broadinstitute @DKFZ science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…