Project area A: immune cell targeting
In this project area, we will develop chemical, biochemical and bioorthogonal targeting strategies to label innate immune cells for image-based tracking and analyses of their activation and functional state and to image bacteria. Novel versatile labels for multiscale imaging will uniquely allow detection of identical target moieties in different imaging modalities, thereby providing chemical bridging for multiscale imaging. Furthermore, mathematical modelling will allow optimised motion compensation during intravital imaging of moving organs (e.g. cardiac and respiratory motion) and a quantitative description of immune cell dynamics from multiscale imaging data. Data from all modalities will be integrated into multiscale datasets.
Projects
- A01 – Cell-type and activation-specific labelling of leukocytes through bioorthogonal tagging in vivo
Principal investigators: Andrea Rentmeister, Henning Mootz
Project term: 01/2021–12/2024 - A02 – Tailored coordination compounds as multimodal labels for multiscale imaging
Principal investigator: Cristian A. Strassert
Project term: 01/2021–12/2024 - A03 – Targeting of S100A8/A9 for imaging of inflammatory disorders
Principal investigators: Andreas Faust, Günter Fritz
Project term: 01/2021–12/2024 - A04 – Metabolic targeting of bacteria through complex carbohydrates
Principal investigators: Andreas Faust, Ryan Gilmour, Silke Niemann
Project term: 01/2021–12/2024 - A05 – Targeting immune cell dynamics by longitudinal wholebody imaging and mathematical modelling
Principal investigators: Klaus Schäfers, Benedikt Wirth
Project term: 01/2021–12/2024 - A06 – Improving intravital microscopy of inflammatory cell response by active motion compensation with controlled adaptive optics
Principal investigators: Thomas Huser, Benedikt Wirth
Project term: 01/2021–12/2024
- PI-2023-02: Photoproximity labeling catalysts as signal amplification tools for in vivo labeling of immune cells
Project leaders: Nadine Heiden (European Institute for Molecular Imaging) and Jonas Schöning (Institute of Biochemistry)
Project term: 01/2024 - 12/2024 - PEP-2023-03: Cell-cell collisions augment collective swarm dynamics in immune cells
Principal investigator: Milos Galic (Institute of Medical Physics and Biophysics)
Project term: 07/2023–06/2024 - PEP-2022-12 – Chemiluminescent activation of optogenetic proteins for the targeting sites of inflammation
Principal investigator: Seraphine Wegner (Institute of Physiological Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry)
Project term: 01/2023–12/2023 - PEP-2022-09 – All-in-one cell therapy of tumors combining antigen-specific T cell activation with local depletion of immunosuppressive macrophages: Visualization of local CSF1R antagonist secretion in tumors
Principal investigator: Claudia Rössig (Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology)
Project term: 01/2023–12/2023 -
ST-2022-03 – A 18F-labeled derivative of dibenzocylcooctyne (DBCO) to label artificial cholesterol analogs in cell membranes
Project leader: Christian Paul Konken (Department of Nuclear Medicine)
Project term: 01/2023 - 12/2023 -
ST-2022-05 – Evaluation of immunogenicity of chemo-enzymatically modified Cap 1 mRNAs
Project leader: Melissa van Dülmen (Institute of Biochemistry)
Project term: 01/2023 - 12/2023