Personalised Immunotherapy

CiiM

Our motivation is to address fundamental questions of human immunology and translate them into personalized therapies and diagnostics. Specifically, our laboratory discovers new applications of antibodies and B cells to treat and prevent human infectious diseases.

Effective vaccines against some viruses that escape antibody responses remain elusive. To tackle this challenge, we develop methods to better understand B cell responses, the cells that produce antibodies. We design tailored vaccines and provide novel solutions for infection diagnostics.

This Department is located at the Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM).

Head

Prof Dr Kathrin de la Rosa

Research Group Leader

E-Mail

Our Research: Methods & vaccines 2.0

Learning from nature, we strive to gain a comprehensive understanding of B cell diversification and function in humans. In addition to classical recombination events, we study a rare but sometimes particularly useful diversification process: the acquisition of large DNA inserts in the heavy chain genes that equip antibodies with extra domains. Our research is based on three main pillars:

Scheme for the binding of antibodies and diagram for the insertion of antibodies — Figure 1. Conventional and unusual mechanisms of antibody diversification. LEFT: Antibody diversity is key to fighting infections and is generated by genetic recombination of variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) segments of the heavy and light chains of the antibody (PDB 1HZH). RIGHT: In rare cases, large DNA insertions can contribute to the antibody repertoire. Source: de la Rosa, K. Pandemieforschung: von Autoantikörpern und Impfstoff-Innovationen. Biospektrum 29, 614–616 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12268-023-2000-1

Our first research goal is to develop novel tools to study the repertoire of antibodies and the underlying recombination events. One of our methods holds promise for the personalized assessment of genomic scarring. Prospectively, a biomarker for DNA repair may be used for the prediction and prognosis of diseases related to DNA-repair malfunction, such as defects of the immune system.

Our second goal is to develop personalized cell-based vaccines. After identifying the blind spots in our B cell repertoire, B cells “by design” may extend the natural repertoire through artificial immunity to endow the body with antibodies of superior reactivity.

The third branch of our research arose during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We aim to improve the safety and efficacy of vaccines by preventing their interaction with body-own structures via so-called Body-Inert, but B cell Activating vaccines (BIBAX). In the future, we aim to explore how interactions of vaccines with body receptors hamper immune responses to pathogens.