BIOSS-A
Membranes and protein–lipid interactions in signalling
BIOSS-B
Oncogenic signalling
BIOSS-C
Re-building & biotechnology
BIOSS
From Analysis
to Synthesis
Lab news
2024
01.11.2024 Marina Zintchenko, Trang Nguyen, Wolfgang Schamel and Susana Minguet write a review with colleagues together on "The potential of γδ CAR and TRuC T cells: An unearthed treasure ". Many congratulations to all authors! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39192467/
25.10.2024 We enjoyed attending the 7th Upper Rhine Immunology (URI) Meeting in Basel, where early-career researchers from Basel, Karlsruhe, Freiburg, and Strasbourg shared impressive work! Marina Zintchenko, Anna Ehret, Valeria Melendez & Nadine Wössner present fantastic posters and and enjoyed lively discussions! Already looking forward to next year’s meeting in Freiburg!
01.10.2024 Trang Nguyen and Wolfgang Schamel are part of the study "Sodium chloride in the tumor microenvironment enhances T cell metabolic fitness and cytotoxicity". Congratulations to you and all authors on the great story! https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-024-01918-6
15.-19.09.2024 Nadine Wössner was selected to attend the CIMT Academy of Translational Cancer Immunology summer school and the CIMT Cancer Cell Therapy Summit in Palmela/Lisbon, Portugal, sharing our resulst on harnessing TCR discoveries to advance immunotherapies! Congratulations Nadine and have a great time!
10.-12.09. 2024 Anna Ehret is off to Boston to attend the 4th Optogenetic Technologies and Applications Conference, where she’ll be sharing her latest research on the Opto-TCR. What an exciting opportunity - enjoy every moment, Anna!
06.09.2024 Lin Ma joins us a new MD-PhD student! Welcome dear Lin, we wish you all the best for your upcoming adventures!
06.09.2024 Misole Velasco, Susana Minguet and Wolfgang Schamel support the study "TCR/CD3-based synthetic antigen receptors (TCC) convey superior antigen sensitivity combined with high fidelity of activation". Many congratulations to Johannes Huppa and his team on this great publication. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj4632
01.09.2024 Congratulations to Gina Fiala on becoming a Junior Group Leader in Wolfgang Schamel’s team! Wishing you great success in your new role!
18.07.2024 For this years labtrip we decided to start the day of with a brunch, then head to the mini golf course and close the day with a relaxed dinner together! So happy to have such an amazing team!!
10.-12.07.2024 Alejandra Parigiani, Nadine Wössner and Susana Minguet join the CRC1479 Symposium - Oncogen driven immune escape and enjoyed great talks and a conference party at the Waldsee restaurant! Congratulations to Alejandra for presenting a beautiful poster!
05.07.2024 We celebrate the yearly faculty day of Biology: This year with an exciting football match, the bio olympics and great time spend together with all our collegues!
04.07.2024 We all join the ZTZ+IMITATE Network Symposium and the Summer Party to celebrate with our friends and collaborators! :)
01.-02.07.2024 Gina Fiala and Susana Minguet join the CCI PI und Postdoc retreat, where Gina presents her work in a great talk!
27.06.2024 Milena Schwotzer presents the results from her Bachelor Thesis in a great presentations. Congratulations on your great work on "Syndapin-2 knock-out enhances εTRuC expression and functionality"!!
19.06.2024 Anna Mitrovic defends her Master thesis "Incorporation of TCR signalling domains in dual CAR T cells to improve CAR T cell immunotherapy“. Congratulations from all of us on your nice work!
11.-12.06.2024 Anna-Maria Schaffer and Susana Minguet join the SFB1160 retreat, where Anna-Maria presents her work in a great talk!
06.06.2024 Susana Minguet presents our most recent advances on CAR T cell therapy at the DKFZ symposium "Immunology, Infection & Cancer" in Heidelberg!
27.05.2024 Gina Fiala publishes her post-doc work from Portugal "Perinatal thymic-derived CD8αβ-expressing γδ T cells are innate IFN-γ producers that expand in IL-7R–STAT5B-driven neoplasms" in Nature immunology. Many congratulations on the super interesting study Gina! doi.org/10.1038/s41590-024-01855-4
27.05.2024 Gina Fiala writes a review about "Pro- and antitumorigenic functions of γδ T cells" together with collegues from Hamburg. Congratulations to all on the nice reveiw! dx.doi.org/10.1002/eji.202451070
17.05.2024 Misol Velasco is awarded with the CIBSS InteGREATor award for her Nature Immunology publication "Harnessing CD3 diversity to optimize CAR T cells". Many congratulations from all of us!! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37932456/
08.05.2024 Nadine Wössner publishes her paper "Phospho-mimetic CD3ε variants prevent TCR and CAR signaling". Many congratulations to you and all authors involved in this great study! doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1392933
03.05.2024 Nadine Wössner defends her PhD thesis "From CD3ɛ dynamics to T cell control: Insight into TCR and CAR signaling" in an impressive presentation and the faculty honours her outstanding work and impressive publication list with a summa cum laude! Many congratulations from all of us dear Dr. Wössner!!
01.-05.06.2024 Anna-Maria Schaffer, Simon Brandl, Anna Ehret, Wolfgang Schamel and Susana Minguet travel to Siena, Italy to attend the fantastic "Lymphocyte Antigen Receptor Signaling Workshop", co-organized by Susana this year!! Anna-Maria, Anna and Wolfgang presented their results in great talks, while all prepared a poster to join the lively discussions during the poster sessions! As always a great event, see you again in two years!
16.04.2024 Susana Minguet joins the panel discussion about "Balancing parenthood and a career in science" organized by CIBSS, sharing her experiences and her advice with early career scientists. www.cibss.uni-freiburg.de/news/parenthood-in-science
15.04.2024 Claudia Juraske and Wolfgang Schamel contribut to the review "Empowering γδ T-cell functionality with vitamin C". Congratulations to you!! doi.org/10.1002/eji.202451028
25.03.2024 Marina Freudenberg publishes her study "Type I Interferon, Induced by Adenovirus or Adenoviral Vector Infection, Regulates the Cytokine Response to Lipopolysaccharide in a Macrophage Type-Specific Manner". We congraturate frist-author Mareike Maler and all involved in this beautiful story! doi.org/10.1159/000538282
15.03.2024 Laurenz Herr pubishes his paper "Kidins220 and Aiolos promote thymic iNKT cell development by reducing TCR signals". Many congratulations to you and all involved on finally publishing this great work! doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj2802
04.03.2024 Claudia Juraske is awarded with an EFIS-Immunology Letters (IL) Short-Term Fellowship to conduct research on the shielding of the CD3 signaling domains during TCR assembly in the lab of Balbino Alarcón in Madrid. Dear Claudia, congratulations and enjoy your time in Spain!!
09.02.2024 Anna Ehret, Marissa Russ, Vincent Idstein, Claudia Juraske and Wolfgang Schamel contribute to the study "OptoREACT: Optogenetic Receptor Activation on Nonengineered Human T Cells" published by our dear collaborators from the Weber group! Many, many congratulations to all authors involved! doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.3c00518
02.02.2024 Marina Zintchenko and Susana Minuet contribute to the study "Mutation-specific CAR T cells as precision therapy for IGLV3-21R110 expressing high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia". We congratulate all authors for putting together such a comprehensive and beautiful study!! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38307904/
25.01.2024 Anna-Maria Schaffer publishes her paper: Kidins220 regulates the development of B cells bearing the λ light chain. Many, many congratulations to you and all involved on this beautiful story! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38271217/
11.01.2024 Annabelle Buschky is elected SGBM doctroal representative. Many congratulations to you!
01.01.2024 Frederike Hartl, Paul Matusewicz, Wolfgang Schamel and Susana Minguet contribute to the study "A partial human LCK defect causes a T cell immunodeficiency with intestinal inflammation". Many congratulations to the group of Klaus Schwarz and all authors involved! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37962568/
2023
27.12.2023 Claudia Juraske publishes her paper "Reprogramming of human γδ T cells by expression of an anti-CD19 TCR fusion construct (εTRuC) to enhance tumor killing". Many congratulations to all authors on this nice work! doi.org/10.1093/jleuko/qiad128
22.12.2023 Anna Ehret is elected CIBSS doctoral representative. Congratulations!
14.12.2023 We come together for a merry and cheerful Christmas party full of mulled wine, tapas, laughter and secret santa surprises! A big thank you to every one of you, for your hard work and for contributing to the success of the department this past year! You are amazing <3
29.11.2023 Anna Ehret attends the joined symposium "SYMBIOSIS" organized by the International PhD Program (IPP) Mainz and the IMPRES-IEM and SGBM graduate schools from Freiburg and won a poste prize! Many congratulations dear Anna!
27.11.2023 Marina Zintchenko and Susana Minguet support the study "Dual targeting of cancer metabolome and stress antigens affects transcriptomic heterogeneity and efficacy of engineered T cells". Many congratulations to our dear collaborators in Utrecht and all authors, who contributed to this great story! doi.org/10.1038/s41590-023-01665-0
22.11.2023 Claudia Juraske and Wolfgang Schamel contribute to the study "A distinct topology of BTN3A IgV and B30.2 domains controlled by juxtamembrane regions favors optimal human γδ T cell phosphoantigen sensing". Many congratulation to all authors on this cool paper!! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37993425/
06.-10.11.2023 Wolfgang Schamel joins the Immunoreceptor Signaling and Therapeutic Applications conference in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China and presents our work in a great talk!
06.-08.11.2023 Anna Ehret attends the 26th Meeting of the Signal Transduction Community in Weimar and presents her project in a great short talk!
06.11.2023 Misol Velasco publishes her paper "Harnessing CD3 diversity to optimize CAR T cells". Many, many congratuations to you and all co-authors, which made this story a success. www.nature.com/articles/s41590-023-01658-z
19.-21.10.2023 Anna Ehret and Nadine Wössner join the CIBSS booth at the Science days taking place at the Europapark every year. They greatly enjoyed introducing molecular biology to kids by isolating DNA with them! #CIBSS
02.10.2023 Vincent Idstein publishes his paper "Engineering of an Optogenetic T Cell Receptor Compatible with Fluorescence-Based Readouts". Congratulations to all authors on publishing this nice story! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37781987/
01.10.2023 We warmly welcome Emmanuelle Morase, who conducted her PhD in Tübingen and now joins us as Postdoc! All the best for you Emma!
22.-23.09.2023 Our PhD students join the SGBM retreat 2023 at the lake of Konstanz to enjoy interesting talks from guest speakers, poster sessions and connecting with their fellow PhD students! Have fun!
07.09.2023 We enjoyed our laptrip to the Rothaus brewery in the black forest and the walk to the Schlüt lake! A lot of sun, fun at the Schlühüwana path and a cold beer, just the perfect combination! We are already looking forward to our next trip :)
02.08.2023 We are super happy that Alejandra Parigiani is one of the 2023 CIBSS Launchpad Funds Recepients! CIBSS Launchpad supports Postdocs on their way to develop an academic career!
17.-21.07.2023 Nadine Wössner had the privilege of joining the prestigious Roche Continents program, which brings together young, talented students from top Universities for a week-long programme of immersion into a diverse world of arts and science. https://www.cibss.uni-freiburg.de/news/woessner-roche
17.07.2023 Celebrating Signaling Research at the BIOSS Symposium with amazing talks and great discussions! #BIOSS
12.-13.07.2023 Alejandra Parigiani, Ingo Holtz and Susana Minguet join the 2nd CRC 1479 “Oncogene-driven immune escape” retreat in Freiburg to deepen our collaborations and enjoyed a nice evening at St. Ottilien.
01.07.2023 We welcome our new lab manager Dorothee Bleckmann in our group! We are so happy to have you and wish you all the best!
26.-30.06.2023 Nadine Wössner was selected as one of 30 participants to join the RIKEN-Tsinghua International Summer Program (RISP) and the RIKEN IMS Interantional Symposium on Immunology in Yokohama/Tokio, Japan. We are really proud of you and whish you a wonderful time!
29.06.2023 Lisa Entringer successfully defends her Bachelor thesis "Investigating the performance of CARs in optogenetically and conventionally activated primary human T cells". Many congratulations on your great thesis Lisa!
23.06.2023 We greatly enjoyed the Open day of the signalling research centres BIOSS and CIBSS, where we presented our daily work during presentations and hands-on experimenst! #CIBSS
20.-23.06.2023 We joined the 10th International gd T cell conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Marina Zintchenko was selected to present a great short talk, while Gina Fiala won the prize for best poster presentation. Congratulations to both of you!
23.05.2023 Alejandra Parigiani is awarded with a research grant over 4.800 € from the Scientific Community Freiburg. Many, many congratulations on your first own grant!
04.05.2023 Katrin Raute publishes her fantastic paper "Breast Cancer Stem Cell-Derived Tumors Escape from γδ T-cell Immunosurveillance In Vivo by Modulating γδ T-cell Ligands". Many congratulations to all authors for creating this beautiful story! doi.org/10.1158/2326-6066.cir-22-0296; www.cibss.uni-freiburg.de/news/gamma-delta-t-cells
01.05.2023 We welcome back Annabelle Buschky, who will join us for her PhD Thesis. All the best for you Annabelle!
01.05.2023 Nadine Wössner and Susana Minguet contributed to the study "MDM2 inhibition enhances immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy by increasing IL-15 and MHC class II production". Many congratulations to Robert Zeiser and his group on this beautiful story. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37071397/
15.04.2023 Gina Fiala joins us as Postdoc. Welcome back dear Gina!
15.04.2023 Sara Hartmann officially joins our departement as PhD student. We are really happy to have you and wish you all the best for the next years.
01.04.2023 Susana Minguet starts her Heisenberg professorship for Synthetic Immunology at the University of Freiburg. In addition, she receives 400.000 € from the DFG to promote her research on activation of T cells. We are so proud of your hugh achievement and we are excited for future adventures to come! https://kommunikation.uni-freiburg.de/pm/2023/heisenberg-professur-fuer-susana-minguet-garcia
31.03.2023 Misol Velasco very successfully defends her PhD Thesis "Harnessing CD3 diversity to optimise CAR T cells"! Many, many congratulations from all of us and all the best for your new job at Biontech!
01.-03.03.2023 We joined the CIBSS symposium "Integration in Biological Signalling" and enjoyed some great science together! Nadine Wössner was selected to present her work in a great talk and Anna Ehret prepared a beautiful poster.
20.02.2023 Marissa Russ and Anna Ehret publish their paper "Opto-APC: Engineering of cells that display phytochrome B on their surface for optogenetic studies of cell-cell interactions". Congratulations to all authors on this nice publication!! www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2023.1143274/full
01.-02.02.2023 Sara Hartmann and Wolfgang Schamel join the Bed & Bench Immunology (BBI) Seminar, which is organized and held by basic researchers in Immunology and clinician scientists from Strasbourg, Paris & Freiburg, bridging the gap between basic and clinical immunology.
26.01.2023 Caroline Schwenzel greatly defends her Master Thesis “Role of the CD3ε RK motif in gd TCR signaling”. Beautiful work dear Caro! Many congratulations from all of us and we wish you much success for your upcoming research internship in Utrecht!
12.01.2023 Sara Hartmann presents her master project “Novel compounds fine-tune TCR and CAR signaling” in a great defense! Many congratulations on your great work and super nice presentation! All the best for your upcoming PhD journey :)
09.01.2023 We welcome Valeria Melendez as new Postdoc! We are really happy that you are now part of our group and wish you much success!!
2022
21.12.2022 Nadine Wössner, Stephanie Doetsch and Susana Minguet are part of the study "Human β-defensin 2 ameliorates acute GVHD by limiting ileal neutrophil infiltration and restraining T cell receptor signaling". Many congratulations to our dear collaborators from the group of Natalie Köhler and all others on this beautiful work! https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abp9675
19.12.2022 We celebrated a lovely christmas party with lots of tapas and laughter. While going through ups and downs this year we can be proud of what we accomplished as a team. Thanks to every single one of you, you make this departmemt a truly special one!
23.11.2022 We joined the 15th Freiburg Immunology Meeting (FIM) and enjoyed a great overview about the immunology work done in Freiburg. Nadine Wössner was selected to present a great short talk and Marina Zintchenko won the 3rd place in the poster competition. Great job you two!!
21.10.2022 We went to Karlsruhe and attended the 6th Upper Rhine Immunology (URI) meeting. Anna Ehret was selected to present a great short talk and we all were happy to re-connect with the URI community in person again!
17.-19.10.2022 Trang Nguyen, Claudia Juraske, Nadine Wössner, Susana Minguet and Wolfgang Schamel traveled to Baeza to join the workshop "Understanding TCR structure and Signalling for effective immunotherapy". We enjoyed 3 days of sunny wether and great science! Claudia Juraske was selected to present a super short talk, while Trang Nguyen and Nadine Wössner presented their projects in a great poster session.
06.-08.10.2022 All of us joined the International Symposium – From Paradigms to Paradoxes in Immunity and Immunopathology in Freiburg. The conference was a great success and everybody enjoyed fantastic presentations, the lively panel discussion and some great science slam! Nadine Wössner was selected to present a great short talk and Misol Velasco Cardenas was awarded with the poster prize!
06.-07.09.2022 Wolfgang Schamel attends the Joint Meeting of DGfI & ÖGAI 2022 in Hannover and enjoyed numerous lecutures and posters and got the newest insights into immunology research in Germany and beyond.
01.09.2022 Nadine Wössner, Sara Hartmann and Susana Minguet are part of the study: "A Cysteine Residue within the Kinase Domain of Zap70 Regulates Lck Activity and Proximal TCR Signaling". Many congratulations to all authors on this nice work!! https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11172723
17.08.2022 Marcella Mandel presents and defends her Bachelor project "Novel strategies to improve CAR-T cell migration in solid tumors". Many congratulations on your great results. Really well done!
11.08.2022 Matias Ruggieri publishes his study "Phenotypic and functional analysis of γδ T cells in the pathogenesis of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 infection". Many congratulations to you Matias and all people involved! doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.920888
10.08.2022 Zidain Bratzler defendes his Bachelor Thesis “The use of optogenetics in the immune system”. Congratulations on the really nice presentation.
19.07.2022 Frederike Hartl is awarded with the CIBSS InteGREATor Award for her amazing Nature Immunology paper. The award recognizes the best publication of 2020/21 within CIBSS. Many congratulations! Very well deserved for this beautiful piece and all your hard work! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32690949/
18.-19.07.2022 We joined the CIBSS Retreat where Anna Ehret, Nadine Wössner and Simon Brandl present their work in a great poster session! It was great meeting everyone again and discussion the future directions of CIBSS!
15.07.2022 Matias Ruggieri presents his PhD project “Role of γδ T cells in human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 infection and analysis of γδ TCR activation” in a great defense! Many congratulations from all of on on your wonderful work!
07.07.2022 We all celebrated at the CCI summer party together! Already looking forward to the next party xD
06.07.2022 Alex Bofi Cuadros presents the results of his Bachelor Thesis “The role of oncogenic mutations in ECM stiffening in colorectal cancer”. Many congratulations on your nice work Alex!!
20.06.2022 Nadine Wössner and Susana Minguet support the study "Hyaluronic acid–GPRC5C signalling promotes dormancy in haematopoietic stem cells" with our expertise on the Proximity Ligation Assay (PLA). Many congratulations to all authors on this beautiful work! https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-022-00931-x
19.-22.06.2022 Anna Morath, Marina Zintchenko, Susana Minguet and Wolfgang Schamel attend the EFIS/EJI FOR2799 workshop “Receiving and Translating Signals via the γδ TCR” in Cefalù in Italy. Wolfgang and Marina contributed with two great presentations and Anna presented a beautiful poster. Everyone enjoyed the intensive discussions and knowledge exchange with other γδ experts.
08.06.2022 Evelyn Teuber presents her Bachelor thesis "Targeting SARS-CoV-2 with anti-Spike CAR gd T cells” in a great defense. Many congratulations from all of us! Really well done!
28.05-01.06.2022 Nadine Wössner, Susana Minguet and Wolfgang Schamel join the EMBO workshop "Lymphocyte Antigen Receptor Signalling" in Siena, Italy. Susana presents a fantastic talk about our current work. Nadine and Wolfgang present two great posters in a vibrant poster session. We all enjoyed meeting old friends, getting to know new people and learning about the newest advances in the field!
05.-06.05.2022 Susana Minguet and Wolfgang Schamel join the 3rd Interantional Symposium of the collaborative Research Centra 854 in Magdeburg where Susana presents our newest research.
27.04.2022 We are thrilled to announce that Susana Minguet is awarded with the prestigeous Heisenberg professorship. Many congratulations on this outstanding recognition of the amazing work you are doing every day. We are so proud of you!
20.04.2022 Susana Minguet publishes a review about inborn errors of immunity and immunodeficiencies. Congratulations on this great review! https://doi.org/10.1002/eji.202149529
06.04.2022 We have received the 2nd funding period for the CIBSS excellence cluster! We are looking forward to many more amazing research projects and collaborations! #GoCIBSS
05.04.2022 Alejandra Parigiani has been accepted into two great mentoring programs supporting early stage researchers in pursuing an academic career. Many congratulations and all the best for the #CIBSSLauchnpad and #AdvanceMent!
04.04.2022 Araya Rattanasri joins our group as visiting PhD student for 1 year. She comes from the Naresuan University in Phitsanulok, Thailand and is supported by the National Research Council of Thailand. We are happy to have you and wish you a great time!
31.03.2022 Anna-Maria Schaffer defends her amazing PhD project “The role of the membrane proteins Kidins220 and Caveolin-1 in B cell development and activation”. Many, many congratulations from all of us dear Anna! You did an amazing job Dr. Schaffer and we are really happy for you!!
24.03.2022 Anna Ehret is accepted into the SGBM graduate school. Congratulations dear Anna, we hope you enjoy and benefit from becoming a part of this interdisziplinary research community!
24.02.2022 Hamu Guo presents his Master Thesis "Analysis of the role of RASEF in TCR signaling" in a great defense. Congratulations from all of us Hanmu!!
18.02.2022 Laurenz Herr successfully defends his PhD Thesis "Kidins220 negatively regulates TCR signaling in iNKT and conventional αβ T cell development". Many congratulations from all of us on your great work and your fantastic presentation. Herr Doktor Herr, we are very proud of you!
15.01.2022 We warmly welcome Trang Nguyen as new PhD student. She is part of the international, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral PhD programme URIdoc, supported by the European Commission. It is really great having you!! https://www.urigroup.eu/euridoc/
2021
15.12.2021 Badeel Khalaf defens his Maste Thesis "The impact of CD3ε tyrosine phospho-mimicking variants on TCR and 19BBε CAR signaling". Very nice work and great presentation Badeel! Congratulations!!
08.12.2021 Stephanie Doetsch successfully defends her Master Thesis "Investigating the molecular features of the CD3ε RK motif". Great job and great presentation Steffi, congratulations from all of us!
12.11.2021 Kevin Echle defends his Maste Thesis: Role of Syndapin II on limiting the amounts of TCRs. Congratulations on your nice presentation Kevin!
22.10.2021 Salma Pathan and Wolfgang publish a paper together with our collaborators from China: "Cholesterol binds in a reversed orientation to TCRβ-TM in which its OH group is localized to the center of the lipid bilayer". Congratulations to all authors!!
22.10.2021 We joined the Science Days 2021 at the Europa Park in Rust. Our group members answered question after question and aroused the curiosity of the many children with exciting experiments and interactive games!
15.10.2021 All of us joined the 5th Upper Rhine Immunologie Meeting. Great poster presentation by Claudia Juraske, Vincent Idstein and Misol Velasco, who won the URI Poster Pize!
13.-14.10.2021 We very much enjoyed the gd Confernce in Würzburg with a great talk by Claudia Juraske and Maria Krißmer.
06.-07.10.2021 We were really happy to join the CIBSS retreat finally again in person. Sascha Yousefi, Anna Ehret, Nadine Wössner and Ira Godbole prepared great posters to share their project progress and we all very much enjoyed the vibrant discussions!
01.10.2021 We warmly welcome María Alejandra Parigiani as new Postdoc! It's great having you and we wish you much success!
21.09.2021 Susana Minguet is the first every winner of the "Novartis-Preis für therapierelevante immunologische Forschung". The DGfI honors her outstanding work about the molecular control of T cell responses leading to improved CAR T cell therapies. We are super proud of you!! https://dgfi.org/ausgezeichnet-deutsche-gesellschaft-fuer-immunologie-dgfi-ehrt-herausragende-nachwuchswissenschaftler-4/
14.09.2021 Niko Thorausch successfully defends his PhD Thesis titeled: "HLA-independent engagement of the TCR complex using synthetic TRuC receptors: A novel approach to genetically reprogram T cells for potent cancer immunotherapy"
08.09.2021 Many congratulations to Susana Minguet for being selected as Internal Senior Fellows by FRIAS!
01.09.2021 Vincent Hammes defends his Bachelor Thesis “Analysis of cholesterol binding deficient mutants of TCR”. Many congratulations on your nice presentation!
01.09.2021 Marina Zintchenko officially starts her PhD. We are really happy to have you and wish you much success!
01.09.2021 Maria Krißmer successfully defends her Bachelor Thesis “Primary human γδ T cells lentivirally transduced with TCR fusion constructs (TRuCs) show anti-tumor activity”. Many congratulations! Great job Maria!
28.08.2021 Sergio Suárez Arcos presents his Bachelor Thesis "Timing of αβ- and γδ-TCR activation by ontogenetic system". Great job Sergio! We hope you enjoyed your Erasmus and we wish you a save trip home to Spain!
07.07.2021 We are very happy that we received the second funding period for the FOR 2799 "Receiving and Translating Signals via the gd TCR". Gamma Delta T cells rocking Germany!
02.07.2021 10 years ago Susana Minguet came back from Madrid to start her own group in Freiburg. Today we are all celebarting together with cake and champagne!
21.05.2021 The DFG has granted a new CRC in Freiburg "Oncoescape" for researching new types of cancer treatments. Susana Minguet is participating with an exciting research proposal! We are looking forward to it! https://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2021/eleven-million-euros-for-researching-new-types-of-cancer-treatment
13.05.2021 Ira Godbole successfully defends her Master Thesis: "Development of eTRuCs against SARS-CoV-2". Congratulations from all of us!
07.05.2021 Marissa Russ defends her Master Thesis: "Development of a membrane-bound phytochrome B protein for light-controllable cell-cell interaction to investigate T cell activation". Many congratulations on you great defens Marissa!
06.05.2021 Sascha Yousefi and Matias Ruggieri publish their paper "Cross-TCR Antagonism Revealed by Optogenetically Tuning the Half-Life of the TCR Ligand Binding". Many congratulations to all authors!! https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22094920
26.-29.04.2021 Susana Minguet was invited as speaker to the IGBMC-FMI Graduate Student Symposium and presented our work on rational Chimeric antigen design!
22.04.2021 We are proud that Susana Minguet is part of the "Gegen den Hass" project. https://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm/2021/erfolgreich-mit-gegen-den-hass https://carolin-emcke.de/gegen-den-hass/
07.04.2021 Frederike Hartl publishes her paper "Cooperative Interaction of Nck and Lck Orchestrates Optimal TCR Signaling". Many congratulations to all authors on this nice publication! https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10040834
25.02.2021 Salma Pathan-Chhatbar publishes her second review "The role of cholesterol in TCR signalling in autoimmune diseases". Congratulations to all authors on this very nice article!! https://doi.org/10.18103/mra.v9i2.2284
01.03.2021 Today Anna Ehret starts her PhD in our lab! Welcome back and we all wish you much success for your Thesis!
21.02.2021 Susana Minguet got interviewed by Howard Wollinsky for EMBO reports about teaching in times of COVID. The article reflects on her personal experiences, difficulties and joys of teaching Immunology at the University of Freiburg during the first COVID lock down. https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embr.202152513
08.01.2021 Congratulations to Salma Pathan-Chhatbar for publishing her review about "Direct Regulation of the T Cell Antigen Receptor's Activity by Cholesterol". We congratulate all authors on this very nice work! Great job!! https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2020.615996
02.01.2021 Since one party was not enough we decided to meet again to play some online-scribbel all together and celebrate Salmas birthday. Thanks to all of you for so much fun and laughter and happy brithday to you Salma!
30.12.2021 Anna Ehret finishes her Master Thesis "Analysis of the activity decay in the MAP kinase pathway after optogenetic ligand detachment from the T cell receptor". Great job Anna and congratulation to you! We are looking forward to welcome you back as PhD student!
22.12.2021 Today we celebrated our very first online christmas party. Thank you to all of you how made it such a magical and cheerful night!
07.12.2021 Juliane Striez, Simon Brandl, Gregor Conradt and Susana Minguet are part of the study "NLRC5 promotes transcription of BTN3A1-3 genes and Vγ9Vδ2 T cell-mediated killing". Many congratulations to all of you! https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101900
2020
26.11.2020 We are really happy that our latest review in now online. "Caveolin-1, tetraspanin CD81 and flotillins in lymphocyte cell membrane organization, signaling and immunopathology". We are proud of the great article by Anna-Maria Schaffer and Susana Minguet and thank the SFB-1160 for the support. doi.org/10.1042/BST20190387
23.-25.11.2020 We attended the CIBSS Symposium "Signalling across Scales" and Nadine Wössner presented a poster and a Flash Talk about her current research. Thank you CIBBS for the organization and the opportunity for some very nice discussions! We all really enjoyed the meeting!
23.11.2020 Our dear collaborators from the group of Burkhart Schraven publish their paper about the Tyrosine 192 in Lck. Congratulations to you and we are happy that Nadine Wössner contributed to support the results using our recently published Proximity Ligation Assay. doi.org/10.1186/s12964-020-00673-z
12.11.2020 To foster the transition from postdoc to group leader, the SFB 1381 awarded Sascha Yousefi the Young Investigator Grant for his project “Analysis of dynamic signalosome assembly upon optogenetically controlled T cell signal input”. Congratulations Sascha this is amazing and well deserved!
12.11.2020 Marina Zintchenko defends her Master thesis about "Rational Design of Chimeric Antigen Receptors against Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia". Congratulations, you did an amazing job and a great presentation! We are happy that you will stay some more months with us to continue your studies.
2.-3.11.2020 Anna-Maria Schaffer and Susana Minguet participate in the first online retreat of the SFB-1160. Great talk by Anna-Maria!
01.11.2020 After spending three year as a PostDoc in Lisboa, Portugal, we welcome back Gina Fiala! Gina got support from the Universtiy Freiburgs COME and STAY programm.
30.10.2020 Misol Velasco is awarded with a two-year scholarship from the FAZIT foundation to finish her doctoral degree. Congratulations Misol and much success finishing your PhD!
26.10.2020 Celia Makowiec finished her Bachelor thesis with a great defense about "The effects of sterol lipids on TCR activation". Congratulations from all of us and we are happy you are staying a few more months with us before starting your Masters in Basel.
16.10.2020 We joined the 4th Upper Rhine Immunology meeting and contributed with a great talk from Nadine Wössner and two amazing posters from Salma Pathan-Chhatbar and Matias Ruggieri.
12.10.2020 Annabelle Buschky very successfully defends her Master Thesis: "Characterisation of CD3ε functional motifs in CAR T cells". Congratulation and all the best for your and your new job at Roche!
01.10.2020 Great filming day in BIOSS! Thanks to all the group for your perfect “acting”! twitter.com/LabMinguet/status/1311778380791021576
01.10.2020 Simon Brandl starts his PhD. It's great having you and we wish you much success!
25.09.2020 Niko Thorausch and Wolfgang Schamel supported a study about "PSMA-Directed CAR T Cells Combined with Low-Dose Docetaxel Treatment Induce Tumor Regression in a Prostate Cancer Xenograft Model". Very nice work and congratulations to all authors! doi.org/10.1016/j.omto.2020.06.014
17.09.2020 Susana Minguet is invited by the SFB-854, Magdeburg, to share our latest research.
13.09.2020 Anna-Maria Schaffer is awarded with an EMBO Short-Term-Fellowship and is off to Madrid for three month to perform exciting experiments studying immune synapse formation in B cells in the lab of Yolanda R. Carrasco. We wish you much success and a great time!
11.09.2020 Simon Brandl defends his Master Thesis: "Improvement of CAR T Cell-based Immunotherapies by the Rational Design of Novel Chimeric Antigen Receptors against Human Cancer". Simon we are very proud of you! You did a great job and a great presentation.
31.07.2020 Max Wess and Paul Matusewicz successfully denfend their Master Theses on “Investigation of the role of Lck and LAT in kinetic proofreading“ and "Characterization of two hLck mutants". Well done and congratulations to both of you!
20.07.2020 We are really happy that our latest manuscript is online (Hartl et al., 2020 Nature Immunology). Great collaborative effort of many, many people along the years, travelling from basic knowledge of T cell receptor function to rational design of a novel Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) for cancer immunotherapy. Congratulation to all collaborators and authors, especially Frederike Hartl. And thank you to the whole Schamel and Minguet group for your support and inspiration. #Teamwork https://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2020/how-immune-cells-activate-the-killer-mode?set_language=en https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0732-3
01.07.2020 Together with Kerstin Fehrenbach we celebrate her 25. anniversary of working for the University of Freiburg with a get-together in the botanical garden. Dear Kerstin we are more than grateful to have you in our group for 10 years now. You are doing an outstanding job: keeping the overview, managing the lab and taking care of everyone in the lab. Thank you so much for all you efforts, you are much appreciated!
June 2020 First fully online Flow Cytometry course for Master students of Uni Freiburg, Basel and Straßburg. Organised by Susana Minguet with the support of Uni Straßburg and Uni Basel and the incredible tutoring by our PhD students. Thank you for your help! https://twitter.com/03Sp1/status/1273555638912716801
May 2020 First ever fully online practical course for the students of the SP-1 module using Twitter: Immunobiology in 280 characters or less! Read the nice article that Pascal Lienhard wrote about our innovative teaching approach during the COVI-19 lock down https://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/online-magazine/teaching-and-learning/immunobiology-in-280-characters-or-less?set_language=en
20.05.2020 Claudia Juraske and Vincent Idstein have been officially admitted to be members of the Spemann Graduate School f Biology and Medicine (SGBM). We are really proud of you and hope you will enjoy to be part of this community!
20.05.2020 Katrin Raute defends her innovative PhD Thesis "Using γδ T cell immunotherapy against breast cancer stem-like cells", which is awarded with a highly deserved summa cum laude! Many congratulations Dr. Raute, you did an outstanding job!
29.04.2020 Celebrating the Day of Immunology with CIBSS! See all videos
08.04.2020 Anna Morath and Wolfgang Schamel are happy to be part of the study "Immunosuppressive Activity of Artemisia argyi Extract and Isolated Compounds". Well done :) doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.00402
05.03.2020 We published two bio-protocol papers in order for other groups around the world to use our optogenetic T cell stimulation system. Herein, we describe our methods in great detail. Hörner M, Yousefi OS, Schamel W & Weber W. Production, Purification and Characterization of Recombinant Biotinylated Phytochrome B for Extracellular Optogenetics. BIO-PROTOCOL 10, (2020). bio-protocol.org/e3541; Yousefi et al. Optogenetic Tuning of Ligand Binding to The Human T cell Receptor Using The opto-ligand-TCR System. BIO-PROTOCOL 10, (2020). https://bio-protocol.org/e3540. Congratulation to all authors and thank you for this great team work @BIOSS and @CIBSS.
18.02.2020 Gregor Conradt defends his Master Thesis on "Linking oncogenic signaling to γδ T cell activation". You did a great job and we wish you all the best for your internship at Novartis!
31.01.2020 Niko Thorausch and Wolfgang Schamel are part of a study investigating the "Molecular mechanism of SHP2 activation by PD-1 stimulation". Congratulations to all authors on this great paper! doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aay4458
29.01.2020 "αβ and γδ T cell receptors: Similar but different" is the titel of the great review Anna Morath and Wolfgang wrote together. Very nice work you two, we love it :) doi.org/10.1002/JLB.2MR1219-233R
08.01.2020 We congratulate Juliane Striez on her great work supporting the paper "Chemotherapeutic Stress Influences Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition and Stemness in Cancer Stem Cells of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer" published by the group of Jochen Maurer. doi.org/10.3390/ijms21020404
01.01.2020 Claudia Juraske and Vincent Idstein start their PhDs. We are happy that you will stay with us and we wish you both much success for the next years!
2019
29.11.2019 Vincent Idstein successfully defends his Master Thesis: "Development of a GFP-free PIF-TCR for light inducible activation of Jurkat cells and primary T cell blasts". Congratulations Vincent, you really did a great job and prepared a great presentation!
29.11.2019 Helena Brandt defends her Master Thesis titled: "The Interaction between Caveolin-1 and the Cytoskeleton and its role in B Cell Receptor Activation". Many congratulations to you Lena and all the best for your PhD in Heidelberg!
12.11.2019 We contributed to a study by Marcela Maus and colleagues designing a a new CAR. This work is published today and Misol-Ha did the biochemical work. We a happy to be part of it.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31698455
01.11.2019 We joined forces with our collaborators and friends in Thailand and publish today a paper on the role of the actin cytoskeleton in regulating conformational changes at the TCR. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31674657
31.10.2019 Anna Morath, Claudia Juraske and Wolfgang Schamel supported the group of Barbara Di Ventura with their paper "Split intein-mediated selection of cells containing two plasmids using a single antibiotic". Congratulations to all! doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12911-1
19.10.2019 We joined the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Upper Rhine Immunology (URI) Group in Basel. It was a great opportunity for networking, discussing and establishing new collaborations with scientists working in the fields of adaptive and innate immunity, signaling and the immune response, hematopoiesis, immunodeficiency, inflammation and disease, and immunotherapy from Freiburg, Strasbourg and Basel. Sascha Yousefi presented his work on the optogenetical TCR and Niko Thorausch on the TRuCs. Thank you everyone for such an exciting day!
http://www.ubaselimmunology.org/uri2019.html
17.-18.10.2019 We participated in the scientific symposium “Celebrate 40 years Cancer Research Center Freiburg” in the “Historisches Kaufhaus Freiburg”. Susana Minguet shared our data on the rational design of novel Chimeric Antigen Receptors in Immunotherapy. We all enjoyed the interesting talks and the great discussions!
https://www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/celebrate40yearscancercenterfreiburg.html
29.09.2019 Together with our long-standing collaborator Balbino Alarcón from Madrid (Spain), we have published a critical review of how the T cell receptor functions as a macromolecular machinery. We hope you enjoy learning more about the TCR! Original publication: The TCR is an allosterically regulated macromolecular machinery changing its conformation while working. Schamel WW, Alarcon B, Minguet S. Immunol Rev. 2019 Sep;291(1):8-25. doi: 10.1111/imr.12788. Review.
27.–30.09.2019 Salma Pathan went to the EMBO workshop “Lipid function in health and disease” in Dresden, to learn about lipids and get new scientific friends. Well done Salma.
27.09.2019 Nadine Wössner is elected CIBBS doctoral representative at the CIBSS junior scientist kick-off event.
17.-22.09.2019 Carina Drechsler and Wolfgang Schamel visit our collaborators in Shanghai in China. It was an interesting experience fostering our cooperations.
12.09.2019 Max Kistner defended his master thesis. Congratulations Max, you did a great job and a great presentation! We are really happy for you!
11.09.2019 Xuting Wang defended her master thesis entitled “Cancer Immunotherapy: The Development of Second-generation T cell Receptor Fusion Constructs (TRuCs)”. Congrats for a great job, a great presentation and a great defence!
10.09.2019 Hanmu Guo defends his Bachelor Thesis "Biochemical characterization of RASEF:Lck interaction". Congratulations Hanmu, we are happy you will stay with us for your Masters!
22.07.2019 Our collaborator and friend Immo Prinz from Hannover visited us and gave a talk invited by the SFB-1160. We really enjoyed great and insightful discussions with you! Thanks Immo!
15.07.2019 We congratulate Dr. Gina Fiala for her most recent publication demonstrating that the functioning of Lck-promoter Cre is ineffective in adult gamma delta T cells. This work inspires the re-interpretation of many studies applying this commonly used delete mouse line to investigate the function of multiple genes in the development of gamma delta T cells. Great work! Original publication: Proximal Lck Promoter-Driven Cre Function Is Limited in Neonatal and Ineffective in Adult γδ T Cell Development. Fiala GJ, Schaffer AM, Merches K, Morath A, Swann J, Herr LA, Hils M, Esser C, Minguet S, Schamel WWA. J Immunol. 2019 Jul 15;203(2):569-579. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1701521.
05.07.2019 Our collaborator and friend Emmanuel Donnadieu from Paris visited us invited by the SFB-850. Thanks Emmanuel for the nice talk, the insightful discussion and the collaborations to come. Emmanuel joined us to visit the Wine festival here in Freiburg that we really enjoyed!
01.07.2019 Nadine Wössner starts her PhD in our group. We are super happy you decided to stay with us!
01.07.2019 We are happy to be part of the local consortium to study the assembly process of the TCR. This consortium is the CRC1381 “Dynamic Organisation of Cellular Protein Machineries: From Biogenesis and Modular Assembly to Function” to be funded by the German Research Council DFG. Claudia Juraske will work on the prohect and starts today. Welcome and good luck, Claudia. https://www.sfb1381.uni-freiburg.de/
03.06.2019 Our findings about the use of a kinetic proofreading mechanism in T cells using our opto-ligand-TCR system have been highlighted in the Quanta magazine.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/immune-cells-measure-time-to-identify-foreign-proteins-20190603/
23.05.2019 Our SFB-1160 is renewed for another 4-years period! We are really happy that the DFG recognizes the great cooperative value of this collaborative research center! https://www.sfb1160.uni-freiburg.de/
17.05.2019 Nadine Wössner defended her Master Thesis entitled “The role of Lck in early T cell receptor and chimeric antigen receptor signaling”. Great job, great defense; Congratulations Nadine!
13-16.05.2019 Anna Maria Schaffer and Susana Minguet participated in the first EMBO workshop on Caveolae and nanodomains: Translating structural principles and dynamics into function. Susana shared our work identifying Caveolin-1 as the unnoticed player in lymphocyte activation. Anna Maria presented her poster regarding the role of Caveolin-1 in B cell activation. We thank SFB-1160´s support to attend to this fantastic workshop.
07.05.2019 In a joint effort with TCR2 therapeutics, we have developed TRuC (TCR Fusion Construct) T cells, which harness the natural T cell receptor complex to recognize and kill cancer cells using the full power of T cell signaling pathways independent of HLA. This is novel T cell-based immunotherapy might be a major breakthrough in the treatment of solid cancer in the future. Congratulation to all the authors, and especially to Niko Thorausch and Wolfgang Schamel. We are really excited to see the performance of this new technology in the clinical trials started by TCR2 therapeutics! Original publication: Synthetic TRuC receptors engaging the complete T cell receptor for potent anti-tumor response. Baeuerle PA, Ding J, Patel E, Thorausch N, Horton H, Gierut J, Scarfo I, Choudhary R, Kiner O, Krishnamurthy J, Le B, Morath A, Baldeviano GC, Quinn J, Tavares P, Wei Q, Weiler S, Maus MV, Getts D, Schamel WW, Hofmeister R. Nat Commun. 2019 May 7;10(1):2087. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10097-0.
http://investors.tcr2.com/news-releases/news-release-details/tcr2-therapeutics-publishes-first-peer-reviewed-data
08.04.2019 We really enjoyed today doing some out-of-the-lab activities together. We took an introductory course in Bouldering and enjoyed a whole afternoon climbing up in Blockhaus. Thanks to everybody for the great time!
05.04.2019 After last year’s preprint in bioRxiv, we now published our novel engineered optogenetic T cell stimulation system (opto-ligand-TCR system) in eLife showing that T cells use a kinetic proofreading mechanism to distinguish between stimulatory and non-stimulatory ligands. Yousefi OS, Günther M, Hörner M, Chalupsky J, Wess M, Brandl SM, Smith RW, Fleck C, Kunkel T, Zurbriggen MD, Höfer T, Weber W, Schamel WW. Optogenetic control shows that kinetic proofreading regulates the activity of the T cell receptor. Elife 8, 301 (2019).
https://elifesciences.org/articles/42475
https://www.bioss.uni-freiburg.de/newsroom-and-media/2019/weber-elife-paper-2019/
http://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2019/a-question-of-time
31.03.2019 We are happy of the success of an exciting collaboration with Prof. Weber and Dr. Maximilian Hörner. We have developed a hydrogel whose stiffness and permeability to cells can be controlled with light, and demonstrated that primary T cell lymphocytes preferentially migrate in soft hydrogels. Original publication: Phytochrome-based extracellular matrix with reversibly tunable mechanical properties. Hörner M, Raute K, Hummel B, Madl J, Creusen G, Thomas OS, Christen EH, Hotz N, Gübeli RJ, Engesser R, Rebmann B, Lauer J, Rolauffs B, Timmer J, Schamel WWA, Pruszak J, Römer W, Zurbriggen MD, Friedrich C, Walther A, Minguet S, Sawarkar R, Weber W. Adv Mater. 2019 Mar;31(12):e1806727.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201806727
https://www.bioss.uni-freiburg.de/newsroom-and-media/2019/weber-hydrogel-2019/
http://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2019/traffic-control-of-cells
27.02.2019 Anna Morath defended her PhD thesis entitled: “RASEF enhances γδ T cell receptor signaling”. The Faculty of Biology recognizes her outstanding work with a magna cum laude. Congratulations Dr. Morath!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BubFEQLHMrr/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=1hd5xwd6arshn
26.02.2019 Together with the Weber and Warscheid groups, we published our collaborative work on light-controlled protein purification for highly pure protein complex analysis by subsequent mass spectrometry. Hörner, M*, Eble J*, Yousefi OS*, Schwarz J*, Warscheid B, Weber W, Schamel WWA. Light-Controlled Affinity Purification of Protein Complexes Exemplified by the Resting ZAP70 Interactome. Front Immunol 10, 637 (2019). *Authors contributed equally.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00226/full
20.-22.02.2019 We participated in the 4th International Symposium Control of Cell Motility in Development and Cancer organized by the SFB-850 in Freiburg. Susana Minguet shared our unpublished data on development of novel Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) for immunotherapy.
08.01.2019 Our intense collaborations with the group of Prof. Weber resulted in another joint publication entitled “Optogenetic control of integrin-matrix interaction”. Baaske J, Mühlhäuser WWD, Yousefi OS, Zanner S, Radziwill G, Hörner M, Schamel WWA, Weber W. Commun Biol. 2019 Jan 8;2:15. doi: 10.1038/s42003-018-0264-7. Congratulation to all the authors!
2018
13.12.2018 Our traditional Christmas dinner was huge fun! Wolfgang and Susana thanked everybody in our group for this great
year and for being such a good team! Merry Christmas and happy 2019 for everyone!
06.12.2018 We got the nice news that our project “Lipid regulation of TCR transmembrane signaling” which is a joint project with
China will be funded by the German Research Council, DFG. This is a good X-mas present for us.
28.11.2018 We participated in the 13th Freiburg Immunology Meeting. Susana Minguet, Katrin Raute and Laurenz Herr shared
their work on TCR signaling initiation, anti-tumor therapies using gamma delta T cells and the role of Kidins220 in
lymphocyte development. We all enjoyed the meeting and the discussions. Anna Morath won one of the prices for the
best poster; congratulation Anna! Wolfgang Schamel and Stephan Ehl shared the deep sadness of Paul Fisch leaving
this life. He was remembered as one of the true pioneers of the gamma delta T cell field, as an inspiring colleague,
collaborator and a true friend. A minute of silence was kept in his memory.
30.10.2018 The university of Freiburg made a huge effort in assembling a large grant in the frame of the Excellence Initiative
by the German government. Today, we got the fantastic news, that our new grant “Centre for Integrative Biological
Signalling Studies, CIBSS” will be funded – and we are part of this centre twice: with a project by Susana and another
one by Wolfgang. For the university and for us this is great.
19.10.2018 We participated in the 2nd Annual meeting of the Upper Rhine Immunology (URI) group in Freiburg. Anna-Maria
Schaffer shared her work on the role of Kidins220 in the development of B cells. We all enjoy the meeting and the
discussions. Sascha Yousefi presented a poster.
24.10.2018 Sascha Yousefi defended his PhD thesis entitled: “Optogenetic Control of the T Cell Receptor Demonstrates a Kinetic
Proof-Reading Mechanism for Ligand Discrimination”. The Faculty of Biology recognizes his outstanding work with
a summa cum laude. Congratulations Dr. Yousefi!
09.10.2018 In a joint collaboration with Prof. Zurbriggen and Prof. Weber, we have developed a new optogenetic tool to readily
and rapidly control protein levels. Thanks to all for this fantastic joint piece of work in Science Reports!
Dual-controlled optogenetic system for the rapid down-regulation of protein levels in mammalian cells.
Baaske J, Gonschorek P, Engesser R, Dominguez-Monedero A, Raute K, Fischbach P, Müller K, Cachat E, Schamel WWA,
Minguet S, Davies JA, Timmer J, Weber W, Zurbriggen MD. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30301909
01.10.2018 We published our first preprint on bioRxiv on the upcoming story of how we engineered a novel optogenetic T cell
stimulation system to show that T cells use a kinetic proofreading mechanism to distinguish between stimulatory
and non-stimulatory ligands.
Original publication: Optogenetic control shows that kinetic proofreading regulates the activity of the T cell receptor.
Yousefi OS, Günther M, Hörner M, Chalupsky J, Wess M, Brandl SM, Smith RW, Fleck C, Kunkel T, Zurbriggen MD,
Höfer T, Weber W, Schamel WWA
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/10/01/432740
02.08.2018 Susana Minguet defended her Habilitation. Title: CAR T Cells: Engineering Immune Cells to Treat Cancer.
Fantastic, a next step in her career. Congrats Susana.
26.07.2018 Paula Alarcon defended her Bachelor thesis entitled “Characterization of a new mutation in Lck protein”.
Congratulations Paula.
09.07.2018 Our work centered in boosting anti-tumor activity of gd T cells is published in Frontiers in Immunology. Congratulation
to all and thanks to our collaborators! Original publication: Anti-CD3 Fab Fragments Enhance Tumor Killing by Human γδ
T Cells Independent of Nck Recruitment to the γδ T Cell Antigen Receptor. Juraske C, Wipa P, Morath A, Hidalgo JV,
Hartl FA, Raute K, Oberg HH, Wesch D, Fisch P, Minguet S, Pongcharoen S, Schamel WW.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30038626
05.07.2018 We got the nice news that our project “Understanding the mechanism of γδ TCR activation, in order to enhance tumour
killing” will be funded by the German Research Council, DFG. It is part of the research unit FOR2799 “Receiving and
Translating Signals via the γδ TCR” headed by Prof. Immo Prinz. Our project deals with the signaling mechanisms
of the γδ TCR. https://for2799.de/
05.07.2018 Together with the group of Balbino Alarcón, our long-term collaborators in Spain, we have published in Nature
communication: “A window of opportunity for cooperativity in the T Cell Receptor”. Martin-Blanco N, Blanco R,
Alda-Catalinas C, Bovolenta ER, Oeste CL, Palmer E, Schamel WW, Lythe G, Molina-París C, Castro M, Alarcon B.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29976994
16.06.2018 Sascha Yousefi took part in the Young Scientist Critical Thinking Chalk Talks at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in
Basel, presenting the big ideas driving his research at a joint event of the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and
Medicine (SGBM) and the FMI. https://twitter.com/FMIscience/status/1009083872418648064
01.01.2018 Misol-Ha Velasco Cardenas joins our department as a new PhD student working in the EN-ACT2ING consortium of the
EU. Welcome to Freiburg!!
2017
31.12.2017 After having contributed to the success of our department for many years, Gina Fiala leaves us for a postdoc to
Portugal. Good luck Gina!
07.12.2017 Susana Minguet receives the CCI-Prize for the best publication of 2017 for the study published in Nature Immunology
on the role of Caveolin in the functioning of the BCR 2017
(http://www.bioss.uni-freiburg.de/newsroom-and-media/2017/minguet-nat-immunol-paper-2017/)
06.12.2017 Wolfgang Schamel is co-PI with Burkhart Schraven and Luca Simeoni in a project within the third funding period of the
SFB854. The project will start in January 2018.
05.12.2017 Wolfgang Schamel receives a Guy Newton fellowship to do his sabbatical at the Dunn school of Pathology in Oxford,
UK. Congratulations.
01.12.2017 We participated in the 1st Annual Meeting of the Upper Rhine Immunology Group in Illkirch. Nice science, nice time
together! https://uri-2017.sciencesconf.org/
24.11.2017 The third funding period of the SFB-850 is awarded! Susana Minguet is newly integrated is this funding period as PI.
Congratulations! http://www.sfb850.uni-freiburg.de/en
25.10.2017 Together with Bodo Grimbacher we organized the 12th Freiburg Immunology Meeting.
27.10.2017 Susana Minguet and Miriam Hils collaborated with Kristina Schachtrup in the last publication of her group, regarding
the role of regulatory T cells in chronic infections. Thanks for such a nice working together!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29262527
18-20.10.2017 We all participated in the Signals From the Invisible Symposium in Freiburg organized by SGBM-BIOSS. Great
meeting, great science and great organization, thanks! http://www.sfti2017.de/
15.10.2017 Together with the labs of Michael Reth (Freiburg) and Balbino Alarcon (Madrid) we spent 2 days in the black forest
for a combined lab retreat, including visit to the silver mines in Schauinsland.
12.10.2017 Signalhaus symposium with BBQ, really nice time together and great science sharing!
28.09.2017 Sophie Pfeiffer receives her Bachelor degree.
27.09.2017 International impact of our investigations. The leading portal dedicated to innovation, innovaspain, has recently
interviewed Susana Minguet, regarding the her most recently published results in Nature Immunology.
https://www.innovaspain.com/susana-minguet-alemania-mucho-mas-respeto-la-ciencia/
12-14.09.2017 We participated in the 47th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Immunology in Erlangen. Wolfgang and Susana
hold talks. It was a really exciting meeting!
http://www.immunology-conference.de/
05.09.2017 Our review with our Thailand friends on TCR interactions partners is published in Immunology. Thank you Sutatip
Pongcharoen and Jatuporn Ngoenkam.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28771705
01.08.2017 Marina Freudenberg and Wolfgang Schamel publish their story on the identification of the adenovirus receptor on
macrophages in mBio. We thank all the people that were involved.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28765216
31.07.2017 We had our annual time-together, we enjoyed a really nice boat-trip, walking and lunch together. It was great fun,
thanks!
28.07.2017 Nada El Samra received the Alummi Prize 2017 for the best Master Thesis of the Faculty of Biology, congratulations
Nada!
20.07.2017 Andreas Narr receives his Master degree.
27.06.2017 Susana Minguet and Andreas Narr published together with the group of Prof. Zeiser about the role of Byglycan in
organizing the tumor stroma and tumor cell invasiveness. Thanks Robert Zeiser for such a pleasant collaboration!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28476030
23.06.2017 Susana Minguet and Gina Fiala participated in the publication of the group of Prof. Reth investigating how the
proliferation to differentiation switch in B lymphocytes works. This work was published in Nature Immunolgy and it
was a great teamwork, thanks!
www.bioss.uni-freiburg.de/newsroom-and-media/2017/reth-nat-immunol-paper-2017/
10.03.2017 Nada Al Samra receives her Master degree.
16.02.2017 Michael Damrat passes his Master thesis defence at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy.
10.02.2017 Gina Fiala is granted with a Post-doctoral Marie Curie Fellowship! Congratulations!
07.02.2017 The kick-off meeting of the our European Union consortium EN-ACT2ING takes place in Madrid. An open PhD
position is available.
17.01.2017 Frederike Hartl successfully defends her PhD with „magna cum laude“. Well done!
01.01.2017 Susana Minguet has been selected for inclusion in the Elite Programme of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation. Very
good!
2017: Marina Freudenberg was elected as a foreign fellow of The Learned Society, which is an association of distinguished
scholars of the Czech Republic.
2016
14.12.2016 Together with Bodo Grimbacher we organized the 11th Freiburg Immunology Meeting.
06.12.2016 Schachtrup´s group publication in Cell Reports is on-line. Congratulations!
01.11.2016 Our brief review is accepted in the J Immunol. It develops a new concept on the allosteric regulation of the TCR.
Thank you Balbino and Thomas for your input.
01.10.2016 Niko Thorausch joins our department as a new PhD student. Welcome and good luck!
01.09.2016 Wolfgang Schamel joined the Advisory Board of TCR2 Therapeutics Inc., an immuno-oncology company located in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, developing novel T cell therapies that unleash the full signaling power of complete
T cell receptors (TCR).
22.07.2016 For her excellent PhD thesis Gina Fiala is awarded with the GEFI prize of the Faculty of Biology. Congrats!
22.07.2016 Sandra Hess is awarded with a prize to the best Master thesis of the year 2016 of the Faculty of Biology.
Congratulations!
07.07.2016 Susana Minguet is accepted as member of the EIRA Mentoring program of the Faculty of Medicine, congratulations!
27.06.2016 To promote our paper on a LAT-deficiency in humans, Art Weiss publishes an “insights” note in J Exp Med.
19.06.2016 Gina Fiala, Anna Morath and Katrin Raute go to the γδ T cell conference in London.
01.05.2016 Our collaborative work on the identification and characterisation of the first human LAT deficiency is accepted in J
Exp Med. Thank you Klaus and Bärbel for the great cooperation.
31.04.2016 We are awarded with a grant of the European Union, to study T cell activation in a consortium lead by Hisse van
Santen. Thank you Hisse for all your great work.
08.04.2016 In a collaboration with Feng Wang and Mark Davis, our manuscript on the role of cholesterol-sulfate in TCR
nanoclustering is accepted in Nat Immunol. Thank you Feng and Mark for the great cooperation.
11.04.2016 We are so happy that our story on the role of cholesterol in regulating the CD3 conformational change in the TCR is
accepted in Immunity. It took so long to develop this story. Thank you Thomas Höfer and Balbino Alarcon for your
valuable contributions. Time to party!!
23.03.2016 The Weber lab and our lab hold a big competition in three Lasertag fights. Luckily we win 2:1, due to our training a
month before. Photos can be seen on the fun page.
20.02.2016 Katharina Rauch receives her PhD degree.
19.02.2016 Sandra Hess receives her Master degree.
03.02.2016 Iga Janowska receives her Master degree.
31.01.2016 Our collaborative work on role of Caveolin-1 regulating TCR signalling strength and T cell fate during GvHD is
accepted in Blood. We thanks Robert Zeiser and his lab for the great cooperation.
15.01.2016 For her J Exp Med paper on the role of Kidins220 in B cells Gina Fiala is awarded with the publication prize of the CCI
in Freiburg.
01.01.2016 Katrin Raute, Anna-Maria Schaffer and Laurenz Herr join our department as new PhD students. Welcome and good
luck.
2016: Marina Freudenberg got Honoree of the Sheldon E. Greisman award. The award is given by the International Endotoxin
and Innate Immunity Society to an investigator (MD or PhD) in the clinical or basic sciences who has made substantial
and original contributions which have led to an increased understanding of the interactions between microorganisms
and innate immunity.
2015
12.12.2015 Erna Mindrup receives her Diploma degree.
25.11.2015 Together with Bodo Grimbacher we organized the 10th Freiburg Immunology Meeting
12.11.2015 Our collaborative work on the role of Caveolin-1 deficiency on epithelial-mesenchymal transition and fibrosis during
peritoneal dialysis is accepted in EMBO Molecular Medicine, thanks to Raffaele and co-workers in Madrid.
07.11.2015 Many members of our department are invited to the big 30-years-Reth-group party. It was great fun. Thank you
Michael.
28.10.2015 We helped Tilman Brummer’s lab to analyse a B-Raf mutated mouse. The manuscript is accepted in the EMBO J.
Thank you Tilman for the nice cooperation.
23.10.2015 Our biochemical paper on binding mechanism of Nck to the TCR is accepted in the J Immunol. Thank you Pussadee
Paensuwan and Sutatip Pongcharoen for the great cooperation.
14.08.2015 Our paper on the role of the membrane protein Kidins220 in B cell development and activation is accepted in J Exp
Med. We thank all collaborators who have contributed so enthusiastically.
03.08.2015 Lea Flachsmann and Hauke Weiss receive their Bachelor degree.
24.07.2015 Katrin Raute and Jan Mentzel are awarded with the prices to the best Master thesis of the year 2014 of the Faculty
of Biology. Congratulations!
06.07.2015 Katrin Raute is selected as SGBM student on Track-1. Congratulations Katrin!
01.07.2015 A paper on a ZAP-70 mutation in humans, where we have contributed some experiments, is accepted in Clin Immunol.
Thank you Fabian Hauck and Stephan Ehl for the cooperation.
21.06.2015 Our long term collaborator and friend Balbino Alarcon come to visit us for a few days.
15.06.2015 Alexandra Menner receives her PhD degree.
15.06.2015 A manuscript in accepted in Nat Immunol, in which we helped the Knobeloch lab to characterize a USP8 knock out
mouse.Thank you Almut Dufner, Klaus-Peter Knobeloch and Marco Prinz for the good cooperation.
25.05.2015 The DFG decided to fund Susana Minguet´s research proposal for the next 3 years. Congratulations!
21.05.2015 The DFG decided to fund the Collaborative Research Center initiative: IMPATH. Thanks to all the members and
specially to Prof. Ehl for his great leadership
30.04.2015 After having been with us for one year to terminate her PhD experiments, Pussadee Paensuwan leaves us. We will
miss you and good luck in Thailand.
24.03.2015 A paper on light-regulated nuclear import by the Zurbriggen, Römer and Weber groups is accepted in ACS Synthet
Biol. Thank you Wilfried and Matias for the nice collaboration.
02.02.2015 Together with the lab of Paul Fisch we have characterized the gamma delta T cell malignancies of thymoma patients.
After long time, the story is accepted in J Immunol. Thank you Paul for this nice cooperation.
20.01.2015 A collaborative grant between S. Minguet and M. Zurbriggen will be funded by the “Innovationsfonds” program of
the University of Freiburg. Looking forward for working together!
2014
19.12.2014 Esmeralda Beck receives her PhD degree.
15.12.2014 We have analysed the membrane microdomain localisation of TCR nanoclusters. The manuscript is accepted in Biochem
Biophys Acta.
25.11.2014 Alina Rudorf receives her Master degree.
12.11.2014 We helped the Alarcon lab to characterize a knock in mouse in which the TCR cannot undergo the CD3 conformational
change. The paper is accepted in Sci Signaling. Thank you Balbino for the great cooperation.
07.11.2014 Katrin Raute receives her Master degree.
05.11.2014 Together with Bodo Grimbacher we organized the 9th Freiburg Immunology Meeting.
28.10.2014 Jan Mentzel receives her Master degree.
11.08.2014 Julia Anna Zimmermann receives her Bachelor degree.
30.07.2014 Liz Cerqueira and Nada Al-Samra receive their Bachelor degrees.
13.03.2014 Our collaborative study on the role of the two Nck isoforms Nck1 and Nck2 in human T cells is accepted in J Immunol
together with Sutatip Pongcharoen.
01.04.2015 Our co-edited special issue in BBA - Molecular Cell Research on "Nanoscale Membrane Organisation" is lauched
11.02.2015 Together with Stepahn Ehl, Freiburg, we publish findings of anti-viral immune responses under attenuated TCR
signalling in the J Immunol.
13.01.2015 Gina Fiala receives her doctoral degree with "summa cum laude".
19.12.2014 Esmeralda Beck receives her doctoral degree with "magna cuml laude".
02.12.2014 Our collaborative work with the group of Balbino Alarcon, Spain, on the role of the CD3 conformational change in T
cell development is published in Science Signalling.
01.08.2014 Anna Morath obtains the Alumni prize of the Faculty of Biology for her Diploma work.
01.08.2014 Miriam Hils gets the Alumni prize of the Faculty of Biology for her Master work.
02.07.2014 Qusai Al-Kayyal receives his Master degree
06.06.2014 Our paper on the CD3 conformational change in the gd TCR is published in Cell Reports; including a picture by Pashu
on the cover page.
26.03.2014 Our paper on the role of Nck1 and Nck2 in T cell activation in published in Cell Commun Signal. This was a
cooperation with S. Pongcharoen´s group from Thailand.
01.03.2014 Our collaboraive studiy with Balbino Alarcon´s group on the CD3e-Nck interaction is published in J Immunol.
07.01.2014 Our work with Hermann Eibel´s group on the nanoscale clusterin of the BAFFR is puglished in JACI
01.01.2014 We welcome Anna Morath as a new SGBM PhD student.
2013
18.12.2013 Carina Zorzin receives her Master degree.
15.12.2013 The Zurbriggen and our group are awarded with a research grant from the University Freiburg.
06.12.2013 Our data-based simulation of BCR nanoclustering is published in Front. Immunol.
06.12.2013 The 29th BII Glögg party is held in parallel in Nice, France and in our lab.
29.11.2013 Kathrin Beck receives her docotral degree with “magna cum laude“.
25.11.2013 The SYBILLA Virtual T cell goes online.
24./25.10.2013 The BIOSS conference of nanoscale signalling that we co-organize is a big success.
18.09.2013 At the SYBILLA meeting in Oxford we decided that SYBILLA will continue.
30.09.2013 Our lab manager Thilo Bass leaves our lab after so many years, to work at the university clinics .
15.09.2013 Thomas Plum receives his Master degree.
01.08.2013 Our application to obtain a robotic station to generate signalling data is awarded by the German government.
15.05.2013 Our method to analyse lipid-protein interactions is published in Anal. Biochem.
01.03.2013 We publish the identification of Kidins220 as a novel T cell signalling protein in the J Immunol.
31.01.2013 Our big review on TCR nano-clustering is published in Immunol Rev.
15.01.2013 Jatuporn Ngoenkam from Thailand joins our lab for 3 month.
2012
14.12.2012 We publish the lipid-based mechanism of TCR nanoclustering in J Biol Chem.
10.12.2012 For the first time our lab organizes a BII Glögg party.
23.10.2012 Our review on synthetic immunology is published in Curr Opin Biotechnol.
08.10.2012 Weng Fang from Stanford joins our lab for 2 weeks.
mid 2012 We move from the MPI to the Signalhaus at Freiburg University.