Speaker:   Prof. Robert Zeiser
Universitätsklinikum Freiburg

Title:  The pathogenesis of intestinal GVHD

Host:  Prof. Lars Bullinger


The work of my group is focused on mechanisms that regulate immune responses after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) in particular graft-versus-host disease, immune reconstitution and anti-tumor immunity. The clinical-translational aspect is that acute graft-versus-host disease is a major barrier for a broader application of allo-HCT in patients with cancer. Recently we investigated the role of extracellular ATP as a danger signal activating antigen presenting cells following allo-HCT. Functionally we could show a role for ATP and uric acid acting on the Nlrp3 inflammasome. In these studies molecular imaging was employed to assess trafficking, survival and proliferation of different immune and cancer cells in vivo. My group has investigated the role of the kinases JAK1/2 for GVHD and reported that  activation of these kinases is critically involved in the pathomechanism of GVHD. Based on these studies in the mouse model we have then contributed to a clinical application of pharmacological JAK1/2 inhibition leading to significant response rates in patients with GvHD that had failed multiple previous therapies.

<link file:245934 download internen link im aktuellen>Prof. Zeiser's CV