Herzlich Willkommen auf der Homepage des Instituts für Pathophysiologie und Allergieforschung!
Gegründet im Jahr 1873 gehört das IPA zu den ältesten Forschungsinstituten der Medizinischen Universität Wien.
Derzeit haben wir 130 interdisziplinäre und internationale MitarbeiterInnen, deren Forschungsarbeit darauf abzielt, pathophysiologische Vorgänge besser zu verstehen und daraus innovative Konzepte zu entwickeln, die der Diagnose, Prophylaxe und Therapie von Erkrankungen dienen. Zusätzlich legen wir Wert auf höchste Qualität in der Lehre und Ausbildung von MedizinerInnen und NaturwissenschafterInnen. Darüber hinaus bietet das IPA die postgradualen
Ausbildungen zu FachärztInnen für Pathophysiologie und Immunologie an.
Research News
Common variable immunodeficiency is the most common symptomatic primary immunodeficiency that is characterized by low levels of serum IgG, IgA and sometimes IgM. The patients suffer from recurrent infections of the upper and lower respiratory tract but many also develop more severe symptoms such as autoimmune manifestations, granulomas and lymphomas. Although autoimmune manifestations are commonly seen we still know little about B-cell selection in these patients. Therefore, we decided to investigate both central and peripheral B cell selection mechanisms in CVID by comparing patients with infection only to those with autoimmune manifestations. We demonstrate that the central B-cell tolerance is intact as measured by receptor editing. On the other hand, we found that peripheral B-cell selection in the germinal centre is defective. This was corroborated by the severely reduced number of somatic mutations, especially replacement mutations, in those patients with autoimmune manifestations. Finally, we show that in vitro activation of naive B cells in CVID B cells lead to suboptimal activation of the mismatch repair machinery, which could at least partially explain why the process of somatic hypermutation is not working optimally in these. Read more
The fact that allergic inflammation and rhinovirus infection act synergistically in triggering airway inflammation gathered authors´ interest to develop a treatment that is effective for allergic as well as rhinovirus-induced rhinitis and asthma. Within their joint project they elaborate an innovative and efficient approach to catch pollen allergens at the nasal mucosa and hence stop allergen penetration into the body. Their concept was based on bispecific antibody conjugates capable to simultaneously bind to pollen allergens present in the air and to the transmembrane glycoprotein intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), highly expressed on the respiratory epithelium of allergic patients. Since ICAM-1 is a major receptor for rhinovirus, bispecific antibody conjugates additionally protect against rhinovirus infection due to their receptor blocking capacity. Next, in vivo testing is envisaged to confirm the clinical efficacy of bispecific antibody conjugates for protection against allergic and viral airway diseases. This research was funded by grants F4607, I3946-B33, F4613 and P29398 of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and by the Country of Lower Austria’s funded Danube Allergy research cluster (P09 and P13). Read more
News & Activities
This is a cordial invitation for the talk "SINGLE-CELL SEQUENCING AND MULTIOMICS: From method to application in asthma and obesity research" given by Prof. Dr. Holger GARNon 29 November 2023 at 11 a.m.(hybrid format). Meeting Link (please copy to your browser): https://vetmeduniwien.webex.com/vetmeduniwien/j.php?MTID=mab60221b9c9a6da3d881605107c07d2c Looking forward to meeting you! Isabella Pali-Schöll (host)
The project of the team of Anastasia Meshcheryakova, Diana Mechtcheriakova and Peter Pietschmann was granted by the Medical Scientific Fund of the Mayor of the City of Vienna/Medizinisch-Wissenschaftlichen Fonds des Bürgermeisters der Bundeshauptstadt Wien. The study is entitled “RNA-binding proteins as novel effectors in osteoclasts and osteoblasts: a systems biology approach to dissect the transcriptional road map”.
Schnellinfo
Featured
