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Münster (upm/kk)
A look inside an immune cell: This three-dimensional image shows the organelles of a neutrophil, including the endoplasmic reticulum (blue), lysosomes (yellow), mitochondria (purple), lipid droplets (cyan) and the Golgi apparatus (green). Scale bar: 0.7 µm.<address>© Angelika Rambold</address>
A look inside an immune cell: This three-dimensional image shows the organelles of a neutrophil, including the endoplasmic reticulum (blue), lysosomes (yellow), mitochondria (purple), lipid droplets (cyan) and the Golgi apparatus (green). Scale bar: 0.7 µm.
© Angelika Rambold

Immune cells in focus: Millions in funding for neutrophil research

German Research Foundation extends Collaborative Research Centre on white blood cells at the University of Münster for a further four years

A boost for biomedical research at the University of Münster: The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio 332 (CRC TRR332) "Neutrophils: origin, fate & function" for a second funding period, with approximately 13 million euros. Coordinated by Prof Oliver Soehnlein from the Institute of Experimental Pathology, the consortium investigates the diverse functions of a long-underestimated group of immune cells: neutrophils, the most abundant circulating white blood cells in humans.

The team is delighted to receive continued funding.<address>© Anna Linard Matos</address>
The team is delighted to receive continued funding.
© Anna Linard Matos
When pathogens invade the body, neutrophils are among the first cells to arrive at the site of infection. For a long time, they were regarded as short-lived “disposable cells” that simply die off once their work is done. However, this view has changed fundamentally. “Today we know that neutrophils are capable of far more than just fighting off pathogens. They influence chronic inflammation, play a role in tumour growth, and are involved in the regulation of homeostatic processes,” explains Oliver Soehnlein. In recent years, the research team demonstrated, among other things, how microenvironmental cues – for example within tumour niches or inflammatory sites – shape neutrophil behaviour, how intracellular processing of signals regulates their function, and what role they play in diseases such as stroke. These studies were supported by a purpose-built spatial biology imaging platform that enables researchers to visualise neutrophils in context within tissue.

New funding period: From the laboratory closer to the clinic

In the newly approved second funding period, the consortium places greater emphasis on the relevance of neutrophils to specific disease entities. Research will focus on three areas of high medical and societal importance: vascular inflammation, cancer, and infection. The aim is to advance the fundamental findings from the first phase towards clinical translation, with a view to developing new therapeutic approaches in the long term.

To this end, the researchers plan to expand the consortium's technological infrastructure. “We are enhancing the central imaging platform with state-of-the-art methods that allow proteins, metabolic processes, and transcriptional activity to be analysed directly in tissue,” says Oliver Soehnlein. A dedicated multiomic single cell workflow will additionally enable precise characterisation of neutrophil states in human and murine cells. Complementing this, the informatics platform will develop new pipelines for signature discovery and causal inference, in order to extract additional biological insight from the extensive research data generated within CRC TRR332. Furthermore, with the new graduate school “NeutroTrain”, a structured training programme for early-career researchers will be established.

Cooperation partners

CRC TRR332 involves three applicant universities: the University of Münster, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Associated partners are the Technical University of Dresden, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, and the Leibniz- Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS – e. V. in Dortmund. The consortium brings together expertise in immunology, tumour biology, infectiology, and imaging including artificial intelligence.

 

The CRC TRR proposal, titled “Dynamics of Immunological, Glial, and Neuronal Network Interaction”, was also successful. The University of Mainz is the coordinating institution and the University of Münster is a co-applicant. The research consortium is investigating the brain as an integrated system of neuronal, glial and immunological networks that collectively regulate brain function and its associated disorders. The scientists intend to decipher the intricate interactions that stabilise the brain’s homeostasis and govern transitions from health to disease. The aim is to predict disease progression more accurately and improve the treatment of neurodegeneration, cognitive decline and mental impairment by developing a deep understanding of network interactions.

 

Collaborative Research Centres

Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs) are DFG-funded interdisciplinary research programmes based at universities. They are designed for a maximum duration of twelve years and enable researchers to pursue particularly innovative and complex projects. A CRC/Transregio (CRC/TRR) is jointly applied for and supported by two or more universities, fostering close collaboration between the participating sites and the shared use of scientific resources. Currently, six CRCs are coordinated at the University of Münster; in addition, researchers from the university are involved in numerous further multi-site consortia.

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