DESCRIPTION OF LAB RESEARCH WORK
The laboratory focuses on the complex myeloid cell family with particular emphasis on dendritic cells (DC) and macrophages. To untangle the role of DC and macrophage cell populations we have constructed a series of novel transgenic mouse strains that can be used to ablate specifically subsets of DC and macrophages in vivo, to define their developmental origin or to regulate cytokine/growth factor gene expression with doxycycline inducible repression. By exploiting these unique transgenic mouse strains, we are particular interested to elucidate the functional roles of distinct subsets of macrophages and DCs in mediating protective immunity in different infection models, such as influenza and malaria, and in inflammatory conditions, such as gut inflammation and obesity. Furthermore, we also study the ontogeny, phenotype and functional contributions of different myeloid cell subpopulations in a preclinical tumor animal model as well as in adipose tissue during obesity development.