Autoimmune diseases are severe, unbalanced overreactions of the human immune system against erroneously recognised antigens. These overreactions are frequently accompanied by strong self-reactions towards healthy tissue. Subsequently, loss of physiological regulatory immune mechanisms is leading to disease manifestation. Although some pharmacological approaches are available for some diseases with certain success, a causal approach with long-term improvement is lacking at the moment. 

This project aims at developing the first cell-free microboregulatory system exploiting pathogens’ ability to manipulate host immune responses by using microorganism-derived outer membrane vesicles (OMVs).