News from the Group

Helena Fehling and Annika Bea win the research picture challenge at a symposium hosted by BNITM on World NTD Day (Neglected Tropical Diseases) on January 30th at Erika-Haus/ University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany

 

The enemy within

A View through a microscope: This picture shows macrophages (blue) isolated from a healthy human infected in vitro with Leishmania parasites (red).

Leishmaniasis is an increasingly prevalent and complex group of poverty-related, neglected tropical disease that affects over 12 million people worldwide. As with many infectious diseases, it is observed that men are more susceptible to the disease and have severe disease progression. Leishmaniasis is endemic in at least 88 countries, but is becoming more prevalent in southern Europe due to climate change, tourism and migration. The devastating effects of the disease range from stigmatization to death, depending on the Leishmania species. To date, there is still no adequate treatment available for patients. Existing drugs for leishmaniasis generally have serious drawbacks. Therefor new drugs are urgently needed.

Leishmania parasites invade host immune cells such as macrophages, where they can survive and multiply. They can evade their clearance by manipulating the host´s immune responses. Our research group at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine has identified, synthesized and patented immunomodulators that specifically activate the human immune system to better eliminate intracellular Leishmania parasites. Results so far indicate that our molecules provide a promising approach that could improve the currently unsatisfactory situation of treating this neglected tropical disease.

 

 

Annika Bea and Helena Fehling standing in front of their poster
microscopic picture of leishmania infected macrophages

Poster Award for Annika in Cartagena, Colombia

Annika Bea,

Bernhard Nocht Institut for Tropical Medicine

was awarded as best poster presentation award granted by Tropical Medicine

and Infectious Disease an open access journal by MDPI, in the 7th World

Congress on Leishmaniasis, WorldLeish7, with the abstract entitled:

"Influence of leishmania infection on the biology of host cells"

on August 6, 2022, Cartagena, Colombia.

 

Congratulations Annika!

Auf dem Bild ist Annika Bea vor dem Plakat des Kongresses zu sehen. Sie freut sich sehr und hält ihre Urkunde in den Händen.

Excursion to the Börnsen Strawberry Field 2022

Zu sehen ist die Arbeitsgruppe von Hanna Lotter auf ihrem Betriebsausflug zum Erdbeerfeld in Börnsen. Alle Kollegen sind gut gelaunt und halten eine Schale mit Erdbeeren gefüllt in den Händen.

Dr. Marie Groneberg and Dr. Luzia Veletzky receive doctoral prizes from the BNITM Friends Association

Of gender differences in the defence against infection and a truly neglected tropical disease

This year's doctoral prizes of the Association of Friends of the Tropical Institute Hamburg e.V. (VdF) go to Dr Marie Groneberg (Natural Sciences) and Dr Luzia Veletzky (Medicine). They are endowed with 1,000 euros each and honour particularly outstanding dissertations at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Men fall ill differently, women too. Compared to women, men contract numerous viral, bacterial and parasitic infections much more frequently and severely. These include, for example, hepatitis B, covid-19, tuberculosis, Helicobacter and amoebic infections.

Prof. Hannelore Lotter's Molecular Infection Immunology group studies, among other things, gender-specific immune reactions in the formation and regeneration of amoebic liver abscesses. She had already shown that the sex hormone testosterone favours the development of liver abscesses.

Regulatory protein partly responsible for sex difference

Marie Groneberg and her colleagues followed up on these results. They analysed sex-specific differences in the acquired immune response in amoebic liver abscesses and carried out detailed molecular investigations of the immune response in the mouse model.

Among other things, they determined the occurrence and number of immune cells characterised in detail and the concentration of immunological messengers in the liver and blood of normal mice and mice with a targeted genetic defect.

They showed that in experimental amoeba infections in the liver, a specific immunoregulatory protein (HIF-1alpha) is partly responsible for the stronger immune response of the male mice. The protein is present in the liver cells of both sexes in response to amoebic infection, but influences the immune cell response of male and female animals to different degrees. Targeted knockdown of HIF-1alpha in the liver reduces the inflammation- and abscess-promoting immune response in male mice and leads to the abolition of the sex difference.


Congratulations Marie!

zu sehen sind ein Vorstandsmitglied der Vereinigung der Freunde des Tropeninstituts und Marie Groneberg bei der feierlichen Verleihung des Preises im Hörsaal des Bernhard-Nocht-Instituts.
Die frisch gekührte Preisträgerin Marie Groneberg steht mit ihren Kolleg:innen im Institutsgarten und wird mit Luftschlangen beworfen.

Award of the Werner Otto Prize to BNITM scientist Julie Sellau

Hamburg, 14 December 2021 - Dr Julie Sellau, scientist in the Molecular Infection Immunology group at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, today receives the Werner Otto Award, endowed with 8000€, for her outstanding contribution to knowledge on gender-specific immunology. Her award-winning work was published in the renowned journal Nature Communications in July 2020.

Research on gender differences in infectious immunology is in its infancy. While men are more susceptible to infectious diseases, women are more prone to chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases. In order to create better treatment options, it is important to clarify the causes.

The Lotter working group, in which Ms Sellau has been a researcher for four and a half years, is dedicated to precisely this question: Using the amoebic liver abscess, they showed that the male sex hormone testosterone causes certain immune cells, which are actually supposed to protect against invading pathogens, to increase inflammatory reactions in the liver. These immune cells thus contribute significantly to tissue damage. The findings of Dr. Sellau and her colleagues open up new approaches for more targeted personalised medicine.

 

Congratulations Julie!

auf dem Bild ist Julie Sellau bei der Überreichung der Urkunde in einem festlichen Rahmen zu sehen sehen

Greetings from the strawberry field!

Auf dem Bild sind gut gelaunte Mitarbeiter der AG Lotter mit Erdbeerschalen in der Hand zu sehen
Company excursion Aumühle/Börnsen July 2021

We congratulate Marie Groneberg and Stefan Hoenow on their successful dissertation!

Auf dem Bild ist Marie Groneberg kurz nach der Dissertation mit Blumenstrauß und Doktorhut zu sehen.
April 2021
Auf dem Bild ist Stefan Hoenow kurz nach seiner Dissertation mit Blumen strauß und Doktorhut zu sehen.
June 2021

Research Group Molecular Infection Immunology

auf dem Bild ist ein Portraitfoto von Dr. Hannelore Lotter, der Arbeitsgruppenleiterin, zu sehen.
Research Group Leader

Prof. Dr. Hanna Lotter

Telefon: +49 40 285380-475

E-Mail: lotter@bnitm.de

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