Events Archive

25.05.2013 - Aktionstag - Public

HZI Open Day 2013

22.05.2013, 17:15 - HZI-Kolloquium - Scientific

Richard Stanton "Human cytomegalovirus - why the viral genome really matters"

HCMV is a ubiquitous pathogen, with a vaccine designated highest priority. However researchers are frequently forced to work with virus strains that have been passaged in vitro, and these strains behave very differently to clinical virus, particularly in areas that are critical to vaccine development. My work focusses on understanding how and why virus genomes change when passaged and how to stop these changes occurring, enabling anti-viral strategies to be developed using virus that accurately represents the causative agent of disease.

15.05.2013, 17:15 - HZI-Kolloquium - Scientific

Christian Freund "Steering immune cell recognition from inside the cell"

Our group is interested in the understanding and manipulation of molecular interactions that govern the assembly of protein complexes. The focus is on recognition events that mediate critical events in immune cell activation. In particular we study mechanistic aspects of MHC II antigen presentation, T cell activation and adhesion.

08.05.2013, 17:15 - HZI-Kolloquium - Scientific

Axel Haverich "This Heart is mine – Autologisation of Surgical Implants"

Both, regeneration and infection play a major role regarding the long term prognosis of biomedical implants. This finds true for biological implants, e.g. transplanted organs, as well as for metallic devices such as pacemakers and artificial hearts. Interestingly, the crosstalk between regeneration and infection has recently gained tremendous interest, since biological concepts of regeneration often prevent or treat infection of such devices.

The economic impact of medical device infection is dramatic, the consequences for the individual patient dire. A completely ingrown implant will never be prone to infection, a rule also true for autologous (the patient’s own) material used as replacement, e.g. valves or bypass material in heart surgery. Allogenic (from different individuals) or xenogenic (from different species) implants, however, are constantly attacked by the immune system, and infectious episodes have repeatedly shown to enhance this process of acute and chronic graft rejection.

Against the background of increasing numbers of medical device implantation due to our aging population, prevention and treatment of implant infection will be a prime target of future biomedical research. Biological implants, biofunctionalisation of implant surfaces to foster rapid ingrowth of autologous cells or incorporating anti-infectious agents as well as biologisation of surfaces by cell seeding using autologous material are the three most prominent avenues of research today.

The presentation will give the medical background from pertinent surgical disciplines, examples of the impact of device infection, and strategies currently pursued by researchers at MHH. Also, the structure and focus of REBIRTH, NIFE and the recently granted project ‘Biofabrication’ will be explained, advertising areas of potential future cooperation between MHH and HZI.

07.05.2013, 09:30 - Symposium - Scientific

1st International Symposium of the Virtual Institute "Viral Strategies of Immune Evasion" VISTRIE

02.05.2013, 17:00 - Symposium - Scientific

Symposium HZI - TU Braunschweig

25.04.2013, 19:30 - Vortrag - Public

Tatsachen? Forschung unter der Lupe: „Spaß an der Forschung"

Wir leben in einer Gesellschaft, in der die Vermehrung von Wissen die Grundlage unseres sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Zusammenlebens sichert. Von klein auf werden Kinder gefördert und gefordert. Wie können wir erreichen, dass dabei der Spaß an der Forschung nicht auf der Strecke bleibt? Wie sieht der Alltag von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern aus? Wie gelingt die Zusammenarbeit in internationalen Teams? Welche Hürden begegnen dem wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs auf dem Weg zur Professur?

25 April 2013 - Vortrag - Scientific

Hans Herloff Inhoffen-Lecture

25.04.2013, 10:15 - Symposium - Scientific

Symposium with Israeli Scientists

10.04.2013, 17:15 - HZI-Kolloquium - Scientific

Renata Stripecke "Regenerating human adaptive responses and lymph nodes in mice with lentivirus-induced dendritic cells"

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen presenting cells (APCs) that play a fundamental role in the development, regeneration and memory of immunity. DCs often become dysfunctional APCs during evolution of chronic diseases, and thus therapeutic approaches to revert their function are warranted. Our laboratory develops new concepts of DC genetic programming based on combining the expression of genes needed to promote differentiation and activation of DC for clinical use. In the past years, we have shown that human DC precursors (such as monocytes) can be effectively genetically programmed with designed lentiviral vectors co-expressing combinations of genes (cytokines and antigens) resulting in induced DCs (iDCs). These highly viable disease-specific APCs can be produced under clinically compliant conditions in just one day of ex vivo culture. Clinical development of iDC under good-manufacturing practices is ongoing for therapy of melanoma and cytomegalovirus reactivation. One of the pre-requisites for approval of vaccines for use in human is to demonstrate their potency and safety in animal models. Experimental in vitro assays using human material and preclinical humanized mouse models have been established in our laboratory.