Detail

Keywords

Allergy and Immunology; Antibodies

Research group(s)

• Antibody Research
  Members:
  Sabine Flicker

Research interests

Molecular, immunological and structural characterization of allergen-specific antibodies and nanobodies to answer fundamental questions regarding the interaction allergen/IgE antibodies as well as to develop tools for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of allergy. 

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

Our expertise includes a broad spectrum of state-of-the-art-methodologies in molecular and cellular biology and immunology, e.g. generation of antibody/nanobody libraries, phage display technology, isolation and characterization of monoclonal antibodies/nanobodies, cell culture, mediator release experiments, DNA cloning, ELISA, immunoblotting, Biacore, mouse models.

Grants

• Allergen-specific approaches targeting the nasal mucosa for treatment and prevention of allergy (2020)
  Source of Funding: Medical University of Vienna, Danube Allergy Research Cluster ( Danube ARC)
  Principal Investigator
• ICAM1 and allergen-specific nanobodies for allergy treatment (2019)
  Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Internationale Programme
  Principal Investigator

Selected publications

1. Weichwald, C. et al. (2023) ‘Antibody Conjugates Bispecific for Pollen Allergens and ICAM-1 with Potential to Prevent Epithelial Allergen Transmigration and Rhinovirus Infection’, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24(3), p. 2725. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms24032725.
2. Zettl, I. et al. (2022) ‘Generation of high affinity ICAM-1-specific nanobodies and evaluation of their suitability for allergy treatment’, Frontiers in Immunology, 13. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1022418.
3. Zettl, I. et al. (2021) ‘Isolation of nanobodies with potential to reduce patients’ IgE binding to Bet v 1’, Allergy, 77(6), pp. 1751–1760. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/all.15191.
4. Flicker, S., Zettl, I. and Tillib, S.V. (2020) ‘Nanobodies—Useful Tools for Allergy Treatment?’, Frontiers in Immunology, 11. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.576255.
5. Bauernfeind, C et al. (2024) ’Trimeric Bet v 1-specific nanobodies cause strong suppression of IgE binding., Frontiers in Immunology, 3;15:1343024. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1343024.