Great Success for Members of our Center at the Annual Meeting of the Austrian Society of Allergology and Immunology, November 6 – 8, 2014 in Salzburg

Many of this year's Prizes of the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology (ÖGAI) were awarded to Members of our Center.

Among others, we can be proud of the following awards:

• Dr. Marija Geroldinger-Simić, PhD, was awarded the Clemens von Pirquet Prize for the best work in the field of allergology. The award-winning publication was part of the PhD studies at the Medical University of Vienna under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Barbara Bohle (IPA) and was published in the top journal for Allergy Research: Oral exposure to Mal d 1 Affects the immune response in patients with birch pollen allergy. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2013 January; 131 (1):94-102).

• Mag. Florian Forster, PhD, the Thesis Prize of the Austrian Society of Allergology and Immunology for the PhD thesis: Identification and characterization of the interferon inducible large guanosine triphosphatase guanylate binding protein 1 as regulator of T cell activation. Florian Forster performed his diploma thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Hannes Stockinger and passed his final exam of master with distinction in October 2008. He continued his work in the field of T cell activation, with a focus on the role of a large GTPase binding protein called guanylate binding protein (GBP) 1 by doing his PhD in the same laboratory finalizing February 2013. During his PhD he identified not only GBP-1 as a new negative regulator of T cell activation but in addition identified unknown binding partners of GBP-1 and showed that GBP-1 is a new cytoskeletal regulator. These results were published in The Journal of Immunology and in Molecular and Cellular Biology: 
  IFN-γ-induced Guanylate Binding Protein-1 is a novel actin cytoskeleton remodeling factor. Mol. Cell. Biol. 34:196-209 (2014).
  GBP-1 mediated interaction of the T-cell antigen receptor signaling with the cytoskeleton. J. Immunol. 192:771-781 (2014).
  Currently Florian Forster works as a post-doctoral fellow on the regulation of reactive oxygen species on T cell signaling at Karolinska Institutet. 

• Dr. Josef Singer, PhD, the Stefan Wagner Thesis Prize Immunology/Oncology. Josef Singer studied Human Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna and joined the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research for his diploma thesis on novel immunotherapies against HER-2 overexpressing cancers. After finishing his degree, he started a PhD in the working group of Prof. Erika Jensen-Jarolim within the CCHD program of the Medical University of Vienna. In his thesis, which he completed in May 2014, he addressed IgE as potential therapy option for treating malignant diseases. He could show in vitro that tumor-specific IgE is highly effective in mediating cytotoxicity against tumor cells. Moreover, his thesis also pursued a comparative oncology approach by defining EGFR and HER-2 as highly homologous molecules in humans and dogs. Treating dog cancer patients with novel immunotherapies could foster important insights to speed up drug development for human patients in the future. As a first step, a “caninized” antibody against EGFR was generated, that will serve in consecutive studies as lead compound for clinical trials in the field of AllergoOncology.

• Roland Tschismarov, PhD, the Ursula and Fritz Melchers Thesis Prize for Immunology. Roland Tschismarov obtained his master's degree in Genetics and Biotechnology at the University of Salzburg, then joined the laboratory of Wilfried Ellmeier at the Medical University Vienna for a PhD. Currently, he is working as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Thomas Decker at the MFPL Vienna. His PhD thesis dealt with the role of the epigenetic regulators histone deacetylase (HDAC) 1 and 2 in T cell development and function. During the studies, the researchers were able to publish work showing that HDAC1 contributes to the effector function of Th2 cells in the context of allergic airway inflammation as well as to the homeostasis of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and their function in the context of viral infection. Moreover, they found that CD4+ helper T cells lacking both HDAC1 and 2 lost the ability to maintain their lineage integrity and started acquiring features of CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes. These publications show that HDAC1 and 2 contribute to several aspect of T cell biology.

• Nighat Yasmin, PhD, the Karl Landsteiner Prize for Immunology Research for the work: Identification of bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7) as an instructive factor for human epidermal Langerhans cell differentiation.

• Mag. Alexander Puck (Institute of Immunology) won a Poster Prize with the work: The soluble cytoplasmic tail of CD45 (ct-CD45) induces quiescent anergy in human T cells.

• Martin R. Candia, Lic., (Institute of Immunology) won an Oral Presentation Prize with the work: Does signal one strength influence the phenotype and function of human allergen-specific T lymphocytes?

• Dr. Guido A. Gualdoni (Institute of Immunology) won an Oral Presentation Prize with the work: Azithromycin inhibits IL-1 beta secretion of innate immune cells by specificly inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasom.