Specific immune cells and immune responses have distinguishing metabolic characteristics that can be employed to – depending on the disease setting – dampen or enhance immune responses. Freiburg Metabolism researchers study the role of metabolism in specific responses in particular immune cells such as inflammasome activation in macrophages or T cell exhaustion. The community is increasingly interested in modulating immune cell metabolism for cancer therapy.
Robert Zeiser 
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Internal Medicine I (Hematology and Oncology)
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism, Cancer Immunotherapy, Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, Graft-versus-Host Disease, Oncogenic Signaling
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of signaling in tumor cells, animal models for acute leukemia and melanoma, Metabolism, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, bioluminescence imaging
Petya Apostolova
Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics and Medical Center – Department of Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation
RESEARCH: Cancer Metabolism, Immunometabolism, Acute Leukemia, Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, Graft-versus-host disease, Immunotherapy, Immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced autoimmunity
METHODS: Untargeted Metabolomics and Lipidomics by MS, Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, Acute Leukemia and Allogeneic Stem Cell transplantation mouse models
TECHNOLOGIES: Proficiency in the analysis of raw data from LC-MS metabolomics and lipidomics (targeted, untargeted and tracing experiments)
Claudia Jessen-Trefzer
Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy – Institute of Organic Chemistry
RESEARCH: Infectious Diseases, Mycobacteria, Mycobacterial Metabolite Transporters, Metabolic Signalling, Signal Transduction, Extracellular Nanocompartments, Synthetic Biology, Mycobacterial Membranes, Antibiotics, Drug or Photosensitizer-Metabolite Conjugates and Organometallic Complexes
METHODS: Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Small Molecule Screening, Targeted Metabolomics by MS, Protein Isolation and Characterization, Proteomics (in collaboration), Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Organic Synthesis
TECHNOLOGIES: LED array 96-well plate (Teleopt), ChemStudio (Analytics Jena)
Bertram Bengsch
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Department of Medicine II (Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Endocrinology and Infectious Disease)
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism, Metabolic Signalling, Mitochondria, Single-cell Immune Profiling, Mass Cytometry, Imaging Mass Cytometry, Adaptive Immunity, T cells, T cell exhaustion, Signal Transduction, Inflammatory Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Liver Diseases, Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy
METHODS: Metabolism-directed flow and mass cytometry, imaging Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, Untargeted Metabolomics by MS and NMR (outsourced and via collaborations)
TECHNOLOGIES: Mass cytometry, Imaging Mass cytometry, Hypoxia chambers, Flow cytometry
CIBSS, SFB/TRR 167, SFB 1160, SFB 1479, DKTK
Ian Gentle
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute for Microbiology and Hygiene
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism, Cancer Metabolism, Mitochondria, Innate Immune Sensing, Macrophages, Signal Transduction, Cell Biology, Cell Death, Inflammation, Crosstalk between cell death signalling and metabolism, Authophagy, metabolic regulation of transcription factors in AML
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Fluorescence microscopy, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, CRISPR-Cas9
Daniel Erny
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute of Neuropathology, Extracellular Flux Core Facility
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism, Mitochondria, Microglia, CNS Macrophages, Host-Microbiota-Crosstalk, Nervous System Diseases
METHODS: Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, flow cytometry-based metabolic analysis (Oxphos, mitochondrial mass, membrane potential, mitochondrial ROS production,…), high resolution confocal microscopy of mitochondria, transmission electron microscopy, microglia in vitro cultures
Dennis Wolf
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Cardiology and Angiology I, Vascular Immunology Laboratory
RESEARCH: Acquired Metabolic Disease, Metabolic Signalling, Immunometabolism, Adaptive Immunity, T cells, Signal Transduction, Cell Biology, Inflammatory Diseases, Cardiovascular Diseases, Apolipoproteins, Autoimmunity
METHODS: Flow Cytometry, CyTOF, single cell RNA-sequencing, clinical studies, Pharmacologic and genetic manipulation of metabolism, Transcriptomics
TECHNOLOGY: Comprehensive Lab Animal Monitoring System (CLAMS)
Melanie Börries
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute of Medical Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine
RESEARCH: Multi-Omics data analysis, cancer metabolism, (genetic) analyses of metabolic signaling, identification of disease biomarkers and potential therapeutic options, pipeline development for high-throughput data for clinical research and applications (e.g. Molecular Tumor Board)
METHODS: machine learning methods, development and application of standardized workflows for the analysis, integration and visualization of omics data, single-cell analysis, creating user-friendly databases
TECHNOLOGIES: High-performance computer cluster, 10x Genomics
Stephan Rosshart
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Department of Medicine II (Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Endocrinology and Infectious Diseases)
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism (Innate and Adaptive Immunity), Host-Microbiota-Crosstalk via Microbial Metabolites in Inflammatory Diseases, Infectious Diseases and Sepsis, Cancer, Nervous System Diseases, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Kidney Diseases
METHODS: Screening of Bioactive Microbial Molecules (Global Metabolomics, Complex Lipids, SCFA) Outsourced and via Collaborations, Multi-Omics Data Integration (e.g. Metabolomics, CyTOF, Shotgun Metagenomics) In-House and via Collaborations, Animal Models with Natural Microbiota (Wildlings)
TECHNOLOGIES: BCON BSL-3 BioContainment Rodent Housing System (Plexx), Rodent Surgery Units (Including Microscopic Surgery), Fluorescent-based Cellaca MX High-throughput 24 Sample Automated Cell Counter (Nexcelom Bioscience)
Jörg Büscher
Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Metabolomics Core Facility
RESEARCH: Metabolomics sample preparation, Metabolomics measurements, Automatic data processing
METHODS: Discovery Metabolomics and Lipidomics, Targeted Metabolomics and Lipidomics, 13C label tracing
TECHNOLOGIES: GC-MS (Agilent), LC-QQQ-MS (Agilent), LC-QTOF-MS (Bruker)
Nina Cabezas-Wallscheid
Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics
RESEARCH: Hematopoietic Stem Cell Metabolism, Cancer Stem Cell Metabolism, Metabolic Signalling, Interplay Metabolism-Epigenetics, Dietary Habits and Stem Cell Fate, Quiescence
METHODS: Dietary, Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Untargeted and Targeted (low input 10,000 cells) Metabolomics by MS, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis
Katrin Kierdorf
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute of Neuropathology
RESEARCH: Developmental Immunology, Macrophage Development, Macrophage Function, Immunometabolism, Macrophage Metabolism, Metabolic Signalling
METHODS: Ex vivo cell culture platform to study immunometabolism in resident tissue macrophages, tissue normoxic cell cultures, transgenic Drosophila to study conserved immunometabolic signalling
CIBSS, SFB/TRR 167, CRC 1479
Dietrich Ruess
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Department of General and Visceral Surgery
RESEARCH: Cancer Metabolism, Autophagy, Mitochondria, Pancreatic Cancer, Targeted Therapy, Tumor Microenvironment, Immunooncology
METHODS: Indirect Interference with mutant KRAS driven tumor cell intrinsic metabolic rewiring, Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation, Small Molecule Evaluation, Seahorse, Targeted Metabolomics and Metabolic Flux Analysis by MS (via collaboration)
Olaf Groß
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center – Institute of Neuropathology
RESEARCH: Immunometabolism, Cancer Metabolism, Metabolic Signalling, Mitochondria, Innate Immune Sensing, Macrophage Signal Transduction and Cell Biology, Cell Death, Inflammatory, Infectious, Cardiovascular and Nervous System Diseases
METHODS: Pharmacologic and Genetic Manipulation of Metabolism, Extracellular Metabolic Flux Analysis, Small Molecule Screening, Untargeted Metabolomics by MS and NMR (outsourced and via collaborations)
TECHNOLOGIES: Seahorse XFe96 Flux Analyzer (Agilent), Hypoxic Workstations i2 and H35 (Whitley), Multidrop Reagent Dispenser (Thermo)
