Dr Dr Theresa Graalmann
Theresa Graalmann is a clinician scientist in the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology at Hannover Medical School (MHH) and the principal investigator of the research group “Translational Immunology” at TWINCORE. Her research focuses on investigating inflammatory processes in the tissues of patients with rheumatic diseases and how these inflammatory processes influence the body’s defense against infection. Dr. Dr. Graalmann studied biology at Goethe University in Frankfurt and medicine at the MHH. During her doctoral studies, she investigated the influence of virus-induced type I interferon on murine T-cell responses at the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Langen and subsequently studied the direct and indirect effects of immunomodulatory drugs on human T-cell responses at TWINCORE. Throughout her medical studies, she worked part-time as a postdoctoral researcher at TWINCORE and, during this time, published numerous papers on cell-type- and tissue-specific immune responses to viral infections. Among other achievements, her junior research group has helped shed light on the role of TLR8 in the development of systemic sclerosis—a rare rheumatic disease—in the blood and skin. In addition, she has shed light on the role of T cells in the lungs of patients with systemic sclerosis. Overall, her work aims to refine our understanding of immune modulation in vulnerable patients in order to minimize the risk of infection.
