New ways to combat allergic asthma
According to the World Health Organization, over 300 million people worldwide live with asthma, and the trend is rising. Junior Professor Dr. med. Sascha Kahlfuß's department at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Immunology at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg is investigating how the energy metabolism of immune cells influences protective and excessive immune responses in allergies, autoimmune diseases and in the fight against infections. The Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation has now awarded him a grant of 410,000 euros. The research work of Dr. Kahlfuß and his team will contribute to gaining a deeper understanding of allergic asthma and other immunological diseases. At the same time, it will also promote the development of innovative immunotherapies.
The increasing prevalence of allergies, particularly allergic asthma, is a growing health problem, especially in western industrialized nations. Junior Professor Kahlfuß explains: "The amount of pollen in the air in Europe is expected to increase fourfold by 2050." Kahlfuß and his research group in Magdeburg are investigating the energy metabolism of immune cells in immune responses against various pathogens, e.g. viruses, bacteria and fungi, as well as in allergic and autoimmune diseases. "It is crucial to understand how the misdirected immune reactions are regulated," explains the doctor and specialist immunologist.
His research aims to decipher the molecular mechanisms of asthma and find out how these are regulated by internal (e.g. gene mutations, gene regulation, transcription factors) and external influences (e.g. environmental factors, metabolic products). "Our long-term goal is to create a kind of 'map' of the metabolic pathways in immune cells in various diseases in order to pave the way for the development of immunotherapies that can be used not only for allergic asthma, but also for patients with autoimmune diseases and infections that are difficult to treat, e.g. tuberculosis."
Photo: PhD student Anna Krone and junior professor Dr. med. Sascha Kahlfuß discuss an experiment on single-cell transcriptome analysis. Photographer: Melitta Schubert_University Medicine Magdeburg
The research work of Dr. Kahlfuß and his team includes preclinical studies with animal models as well as single-cell transcriptome studies of immune cells from asthma patients. In the current project, the team is collaborating with the University Clinic for Pneumology (Director: Prof. Jens Schreiber, MD) and the University Clinic for Haematology, Oncology and Cell Therapy (Director: Prof. Dimitrios Mougiakakos, MD) in Magdeburg as well as with Dr. Katja Dettmer-Wilde from the Institute for Functional Genomics in Regensburg.
Dr. med. Sascha Kahlfuß has been Junior Professor of Inflammation and Immunometabolism at the University of Magdeburg since 2020. He studied human medicine at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg as well as at the Technical University of Dresden and the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (practical year). He then spent four years conducting research in New York (USA) to characterize immunodeficiencies caused by mutations in calcium signalling pathways. He has been a specialist immunologist since 2021 and has been completing his further training as a specialist in microbiology, virology and infection epidemiology at the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene since 2020.
Photo: Junior Professor Dr. med. Sascha Kahlfuß (4th from left) and the bacteriological diagnostics team in microbiology. Photo: Dr. Kahlfuß
Contact
Junior Professor Dr. med. Sascha Kahlfuß, Head of the Inflammation and Immunometabolism working group, Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, phone: +49-391/67 13286,