Birth and the Immune System
Infants are frequently exposed to seasonal viral respiratory infections, such as influenza virus. At the same time, dynamic changes in the composition and functional adaptation of lung cells occur during postnatal lung development, which together shape the nature and strength of respiratory immunity. However, the long-term consequences of respiratory infections in early childhood on these processes remain largely unclear. In particular, research is still needed to determine whether and how such early childhood events alter the adaptation of the lung microenvironment in the long term, thereby permanently affecting the responsiveness of lung residing cells to later infections in adulthood.
Photo: Prof. Dr. Dunja Bruder is Professor of Infection Immunology at the Medical Faculty of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and also heads the "Immune Regulation" working group at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig.
Prof. Dr. Bruder from the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg will address this research task together with her colleague Prof. Jochen Hühn from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig as part of the newly established research network SFB/Transregio 359 "Perinatal development of immune cell topology (PILOT)".
Lesen Sie hier die vollständige Pressemitteilung des Universitätsklinikums Freiburg. (Read the full press release from Freiburg University Hospital here. In German)