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UNIVERSITATSKLINIKUM ERLANGEN (UKER)

Erlangen, Germany

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The University Hospital of Erlangen (Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, UKER), founded in 1815, has evolved into one of Germany's top clinics with a world-class reputation. UKER is renowned for its strong research focus, which particularly applies to the field of immunomedicine.

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The research of the Institute of Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene of the UKER focuses on host-pathogen interactions and immunity to infectious diseases. The research group of Dr. Kilian Schober specializes in understanding and engineering human T cell immunity. In recent years, the group has employed cutting-edge technologies to elucidate human antigen-specific T cell responses, e.g. following vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and yellow fever virus (YFV).

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Within the YELLOW4FLAVI consortium, the group will contribute its expertise in T cell engineering, T cell epitope discovery and T cell metabolism in order to investigate the differences in T-cell responses against the yellow fever vaccine in comparison to other flavivirus vaccines or infections (such as Dengue or Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus). The ultimate goal is to develop strategies to improve or newly design vaccines for those flaviviruses, for which no effective or no vaccines at all exist, respectively.

Project Team

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Dr. Kilian Schober

Kilian studied Medicine at the Universities of Würzburg and London. After his MD thesis in the lab of Stephan Kissler at Harvard Medical School, Kilian trained to become a medical specialist for Microbiology, Virology and Epidemiology of Infections and joined the team of Dirk Busch at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) as a post-doctoral fellow. As of 2021, he has been a group leader at the Institute of Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene in Erlangen (FAU). Kilian is lead of the YELLOW4FLAVI work package 3, which aims at characterizing long-term cellular memory to flavivirus vaccines

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Dr. Myriam Grotz

​Myriam studied Molecular Medicine at FAU Erlangen. After her MSc degree in Molecular Parasitology at Salford University, UK, she returned to FAU for her PhD in the group of Michaela Petter, working on the epigenetic mechanisms in sexual differentiation of Plasmodium falciparum parasites. In the YELLOW4FLAVI consortium, she will conduct the bioinformatic analyses on the T cells sampled from the different study cohorts.

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Prof. Dr. Christian Bogdan

Christian studied Medicine at FAU and at the University of London and then worked as post-doctoral fellow, first with Martin Röllinghoff in Erlangen and thereafter with Carl Nathan at Cornell University Medical College in New York. In 1993, he came back to FAU as a group leader, obtained his board certificate in clinical microbiology and became associate professor. From 2003 to 2007, he was director of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Freiburg, before he returned to FAU as head of the Institute of Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene. His main research interest is the innate immune response to intracellular pathogens. From 2011 to 2024, Christian was a member of the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Project tasks

Work Package 2 Identification of host factors that predict and influence the vaccine response to YF17D

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  • Task 2.1. Recruiting and collecting samples from new European cohorts vaccinated with YF17D

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Work Package 3 Lead: Long‐term protective memory response after vaccination

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  • Task 3.1. Analysis of number, phenotype, epitope-specificity and B cell receptor repertoire profile of YFV and TBE memory B cells

  • Task 3.3. Lead: Identification of T cell epitope immunodominance of the memory compartment

  • Task 3.4. Lead: Phenotypic, metabolic and functional analysis of memory T cells

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Work Package 4 Initiation of the immune response and presentation of viral antigens

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  • Task 4.3. Define the antigen source and explain the mechanism of antigen transfer from infected stromal cells to DCs for presentation to YFV-specific T cells

  • Task 4.4. Induction of Tfh cell differentiation by YF17D-exposed DCs

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