News

January 2023 –  Winner of the picture of the year: Adinda Wens (AG Kerschensteiner) for the picture  ‘Fierce Firing’

The image depicts “Neurons and their processes in the murine hippocampus”.

August 2022 – The DFG will extend funding of the transregional CRC 152 “Maintenance of Body Homeostasis by Transient Receptor Potential Channel Modules” for its third funding period (until mid 2026). Anneli Peters and Martin Kerschensteiner from our institute have joined the initiative to study the role of TRP channels in the regulation of autoimmune CNS inflammation. In the CRC they will pursue this aim together with other researchers from Munich, Homburg, Heidelberg, Leipzig and Freiburg.

January 2022 –  Our group leaders Anneli Peters and Lisa Ann Gerdes won a highly competitive research grant of 297.000 USD from the US-American National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS). The NMSS called for research projects investigating the earliest stages of MS with the ultimate goal to reduce the risk for developing MS. The focus of our funded project is the disease-triggering potential of the bacteria of the human gut, called microbiota, in prodromal MS.

To tackle this task we have assembled a multicomponent system to discover disease-triggering components of human intestinal microbiota. With great support in this project from the very beginning from our supervisors Prof. Wekerle and Prof. Hohlfeld this set-up previously showed enhanced disease induction in germ-free mice colonized with fecal microbiota from twins with established MS. We will now employ our unique cohort of 87 MS-discordant monozygotic twin pairs, to identify relevant changes in microbial composition and associated immune pathways. With Dr. Hongsup Yoon we have expanded our toolset to include colonization experiments with enteroscopically obtained material from more proximal gut segments including the ileum, which is suspected to be a ‘hot spot’ for the activation of autoreactive lymphocytes. Most importantly, healthy co-twins have the highest familial risk to develop MS. Indeed, using MRI and CSF diagnostics, we detected subclinical neuroinflammation (SCNI) in a subgroup of healthy twins. Thus, studying fecal, ileal and colonic material from these patients may allow insights into the early, prodromal phase of MS. 

November 2021 –  The Klaus Faber foundation has funded a new research initiative at the Institute of Clinical Neuroimmunology that aims to uncover disease driving mechanisms in multiple sclerosis. An initial support of 100.000 Euro will be used to perform cell transcriptomic analyses of CSF samples derived from progressive MS patients. This will help us uncover how CNS immune responses shift as the disease moves towards progression.

Klaus Faber Stiftung finanziert eine Initiative zur Erforschung der progredienten Multiplen Sklerose am Institut für Klinische Neuroimmunologie

Der Stiftungszweck der seit 2014 tätigen gemeinnützigen Klaus Faber Stiftung ist die Förderung von Vorhaben der forschenden und/oder angewandten Medizin. In diesem Jahr fördert die Stiftung die KLAUS FABER INITIATIVE ZUR ERFORSCHUNG DER PROGREDIENTEN MULTIPLEN SKLEROSE am Institut für Klinische Neuroimmunologie. Diese Fördermaßnahme ist mit 100.000,- Euro dotiert und hat zum Ziel, die immunologischen Antreiber der Progression bei MS-Patienten zu identifizieren. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, sollen in einem ersten Schritt Zellen aus dem Nervenwasser von MS-Patienten isoliert werden und dann mit Hilfe der Einzelzellsequenzierung hochaufgelöst molekular untersucht werden. Mit dieser Förderung würdigt die Klaus Faber Stiftung die herausragende Forschung am Institut für Klinische Neuroimmunologie auf dem Gebiet der Multiplen Sklerose. Die Startveranstaltung zur Initiierung der Fördermaßnahme fand am 07.09.2021 im Logistikzentrum Fichtenau der Klaus Faber AG statt.

Die Klaus Faber Stiftung wurde von dem Unternehmer Klaus Faber zur Sicherstellung, Entwicklung und Fortführung seines Lebenswerkes, der Klaus Faber AG (www.faberkabel.de), ins Leben gerufen. Bislang wurden von der noch jungen Stiftung mit Stiftungsmitteln realisiert

- ein KLAUS FABER HYBRID-OP am Caritas Klinikum Saarbrücken, akademisches Lehrkrankenhaus der Universität des Saarlandes

- ein KLAUS FABER ZENTRUM FÜR HORNHAUTERKRANKUNGEN an der Augenklinik des Universitätsklinikums des Saarlandes, Homburg/Saar

- eine KLAUS FABER STIFTUNGSPROFESSUR FÜR BIOINFORMATIK am Helmholtz-Institut für Pharmazeutische Forschung Saarland (HIPS), Saarbrücken

- die Finanzierung eines KLAUS FABER FELLOW am Institut für Neuroimmunologie und Multiple-Sklerose-Forschung der Universitätsmedizin Göttingen (UMG)

November 2021 –  Winner of the picture of the year: Anna Kolz (AG Peters) for the picture  ‘Invading the cortex’

The image depicts “B cell follicles crowning the murine cortex”.

September 2021 – Das menschliche Immunsystem erzeugt eine enorme Vielfalt an Antikörpern, die erforderlich sind, um uns vor Krankheitserregern zu schützen. Dabei werden aber auch Fehler gemacht und es kommt zur Bildung von Autoantikörpern, die körpereigene Strukturen angreifen und zum Beispiel rheumatische Erkrankungen oder Entzündungen im Gehirn verursachen.

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Mai 2021 – Eduardo Beltrán, Lisa-Ann Gerdes and Julia Hansen received the Outstanding Publication Award 2021 for their study on Early adaptive immune activation detected in monozygotic twins with prodromal multiple sclerosis that was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigations. The outstanding publication award is made possible by the generous support of the Rosa Laura and Hartmut Wekerle foundation and recognizes a particularly impactful publication from our insitute. The study impressed the reviewers with the innovative technological approach, the elegant clinical design and the important and novel insights into the immunological alterations that characterize the earliest stages of multiple sclerosis.  (Read More...)

April 2021 – Julie Fourneau from our institute and post-doctoral student in the laboratory of Florence Bareyre has been awarded a 2-years post-doctoral fellowship from the Wings for Life Foundation. During this time,  Julie Fourneau will study how immune cells  in the spinal cord control axonal wiring following spinal cord injury. Her work should reveal how immune cells contribute to the establishment of correct connectivity in the injured CNS (Read More...)

February 2021 – Franziska Thaler from our institute will receive funding from the Advanced Clinician Scientist Module within the framework of the Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy) for her project: B-cell-mediated immune response in GAD-antibody associated neurological disorders“. For this study, Franziska Thaler and her team will focus on the characterization of B cells and autoreactive antibodies in different B-cell compartments on a single cell level. (Read More...)

February 2021 – The DFG will extend the funding of the transregional CRC 128 „Multiple Sclerosis“ for its third funding period (until mid-2024). In this research initiative Anneli Peters, Edgar Meinl, Naoto Kawakami and Martin Kerschensteiner from our institute work together with colleagues from the TU Munich as well as the universities of Mainz and Münster to investigate initiating, effector and regulatory mechanisms in the disease process. (Read More...)

November 2020 – Valérie Van Steebergen, from our institute and post-doctoral student in the laboratory of Florence Bareyre has been awarded a 2-years post-doctoral fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. During this time, Valérie will study the role of neuronal activity in the shaping of new circuits following CNS injury. Her work should determine whether and how stimulation of activity in nerve cells can drive functional recovery following CNS injuries. (Read More...)

October 2020 – Martin Kerschensteiner, director of the Institute of Clinical Neuroimmunology, has been elected as a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. The Leopoldina orignated in 1652 and now has 1600 members from almost all branches of sience. The mission of the Leopoldina is to represent the German scientific community internationally and provide policy makers and the public with science-based evidence. Martin Kerschensteiner will join the „Sektion“ Neurosciences (Read More...)

October 2020 – Simone Mader from our institute will receive 40.000 Euro funding for her Oppenheim-Förderpreis application on the “Characterization of CNS-reactive antibodies in multiple sclerosis and related diseases” after internal validation by Novartis. For this study, Simone Mader will focus on patients with multiple sclerosis or similar diseases who present with optic neuritis. Brain-reactive antibodies and B cells will be investigated using novel methodological approaches, in order to identify target antigens. The identification of such autoantibodies is of high diagnostic and therapeutic relevance.