Institute of Immunology

Chance favours only the prepared mind
Louis Pasteur

Welcome to the Website of the Institute of Immunology!

To add to a better understanding of the immune system by purposeful research and to provide this knowledge to students as well as for professional education is the main goal of the Institute of Immunology. Our efforts are especially dedicated to conduct application-oriented investigations relevant to human medicine. Elucidating the molecular basis of immunological reactions is aimed at increasing the insight into the principles of immune reactivity and shall form the basis for the development of new strategies for therapeutic interventions as well as for decisive diagnostic procedures.

Founded in 1967, the IFI currently employs 64 researchers, 46 of them funded by project grants. It is one of the evaluated top biomedical research institutions in Vienna. For your information you may download our image folder (1,9 MB) and the last Scientific Report2009 (1,3 MB) - 40 Years Special Report 2007 (5,9 MB)

News and Activities

ÖGAI Poster and Presentation Prizes

07-11-2009 On occasion of the Landsteiner Meeting of the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology in Salzburg, Alina Neunkirchner, Victoria Reichl-Leb, Sabine Konradi and Roland Tschismarov have been awarded Poster Prizes and Johannes Stöckl a Best Oral Presentation Prize.

Awardees of ÖGAI Prizes, among them our colleagues

ÖGAI Prizes for Julia Raberger and Victoria Reichl-Leb

05-10-2009 After international reviewing the board of the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology has decided to award the Ursula & Fritz Melchers Dissertationspreis 2009 to Julia RABERGER for her Thesis "Studies on the role of the tyrosine kinase Itk T cell development and function". The Clemens von Pirquet Prize 2009 goes to Victoria REICHL-LEB for her pulication in J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 124:121,2009 "Modulation of allergen-specific T-lymphocyte function by virus-like particles decorated with HLA class II molecules"

 

 

V.Reichl-Leb, J.Raberger

European Congress of Immunology
ECI 2015 will be in Vienna

17-09-2009 Winfried F. Pickl was highly successful in representing the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology (ÖGAI) in the competition for the European Congress of Immunology 2015 proposing Vienna as the Congress Venue. Excellent preparation and presentation of the bid, together with B.Bohle from the Inst.of Pathophysiology, will bring more than 5000 scientists to Vienna in the year 2015 (APA announcement)


W.F.Pickl, B.Bohle

Doc Forte Stipendium
Austrian Academy of Sciences
12-03-2009 Judith Leitner (Division Immune Receptors and T-Cell Activation, Head Peter Steinberger) has received a Doc Forte Scholarship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences for her project "Identification of
tumor antigens usign antibodies induced by DC-based vaccines" for the next two years.


Judith Leitner

Lise Meitner Stipendium
03-11-2008 Sabine Witzel (Division Molecular Biology of Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Dendritic Cells; Head Herbert Strobl) has received a Lise Meitner Scholarship from the Austrian Science Fund for her project "Regulation of epithelial properties in Langerhans cells" for the period 2009-2011.


Sabine Witzel

ISO 9001 Certificate
19-06-2008 The Immunodiagnostic Laboratory of the Institute of Immunology has received the Certificate according to the Guidelines of ISO 9001. It is a great concern to us to contribute to the further improvement of standardization as well an implementation of quality control measures in immunologic testing procedures.



UEMS
Union Européenne des Medecins Spécialistes
17-05-2008 Gerhard Zlabinger was elected Secretary of the UEMS Section "Medical Bio-Pathology"
Austrian Academy of Sciences
"Junge Kurie"

14-05-2008 Wilfried Ellmeier and Herbert Strobl have been elected members of the newly founded "Junge Kurie" of the Austria Academy of Sciences. Wilfried Ellmeier was also nominated as Board member of the "Junge Kurie".

New Professors
Inaugural Lectures 29.04.2008

Wilfried Ellmeier - Professor of Immunbiology

Gerhard Zlabinger - Professor of Clinical and Experimental Immunology

 

26.11.2007 Opening of the Christian Doppler Labor for Immune Modulation
Head: Barbara Bohle (Inst.Pathophysiology)

Winfried F.Pickl is heading Module 4

01-03-2007

Stefanie Kirchberger, who did her diploma and phD Thesis at our institute will move to The University of Oxford, UK, Laboratory of Fiona Powrie

13-12-2007

Landsteiner Prize of the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology for Winfried F.Pickl

01-12-2007

Sanofi-Aventis Preis 2007 for Ivan bilic for his publication "Negative regulation of CD8 expression via CD8 enhancer-mediated recruitment of the zinc finger protein MAZR." in Nature Immunol. 7:392, 2006

26-11-2007

Opening of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Immune Modulation. Head: Barbara Bohle (Inst.f.Pathophysiology, MUW), Winfried F.Pickl heading Module 4

23-11-2007 40 Years Institute of Immunology
Symposium at the Gesellschaft der Ärzte in Wien
01-10-2007 Starting Process for ISO 9001/2000 certification for our Immundiagnostic Laboratory. Planned to achieve in June 2008

 

SFB
At the beginning of 2005 the SFB "Mechanisms of Establishment and Maintenance of Immunological Tolerance" (Speaker Wilfried Ellmeier) has started.

Lectures

08-08-2007 Martin Oft (Schering-Plough BioPharma, Palo Alto, USA): "IL-23 turns immune surveillance into tumor promoting inflammation"

07-08-2007 Janko Nikolich-Zugich (Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, USA): "Age-related changes in CD8 T-cell homeostasis and maintenance in response to a persistent virus : heavy maintenance fees?

10-07-2007 Tobias Junt (Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Vienna): "Subcapsular sinus macrophages capture lymph-borne virus particles for presentation to B cells"

29-06-2007 Ranjeny Thomas (University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia): "Development of a therapeutic vaccine for rheumatoid arthritis"

28-06-2007 Thomas Fehr (University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland): "The role of indirect antigen presentation for allograft rejection and tolerance"

26-03-2007 Jochen Hühn (Charite, Berlin, Germany): "Functional properties of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells"

12-03-2007 Thomas Brocker (LMU Munich, Germany): "Dendritic Cell - CD8 T cell interactions in vivo"

26-02-2007 Steffen Jung (Weizman Institute, Rehovot, Israel): "Probing Origins and Functions of Dendritic cells"

13-02-2007 Ari Waisman (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany): "Studying the immunological tolerance in a mouse model for multiple sclerosis"

07-02-2007 Jens Schröder (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Germany): "Antimicrobial Peptides: Local Host Response Elements"

25-01-2007 Sem Saeland, PhD (INSERM U503 Lyon, France): "Positioning Langerhans cells among the antigen-presenting cells of the skin"