Detail

Keywords

Coronavirus; Coronavirus Infections; Encephalitis, Tick-Borne; Epitope Mapping; Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; Flavivirus Infections; Immunodominant Epitopes; SARS Virus; Yellow Fever Vaccine; Yellow fever virus

Research interests

Our main research focus is to understand the mechanisms of protective immunity against human-pathogenic viruses. We study the virus-specific immune responses with a special emphasis on the fine-specificities of CD4 T helper cells that recognize epitopes in the viral structural proteins and thus can provide direct help to B cells producing neutralizing and protective antibodies. Based on the known crystallographic structures of viral proteins, immunodominant regions of T cell epitopes have been mapped to specific structural domains in the context of human infections as well as vaccination. The results will provide insights into incompletely understood aspects of human T cell responses that contribute to protective immunity against emerging virus pathogens.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

CD4 T cell epitope mapping, analyses of immunodominant epitopes in the context of the three-dimensional structures of virus proteins, class II allele-specific affinity predictions and informatics-based approaches as well as in vitro T cell activation assays using structurally defined antigen preparations.

Grants

• SARS CoV-2 specific T cell and antibody responses in COVID-19: Establishment of standardized immunoassays (2020)
  Source of Funding: Medical Scientific Fund of the Mayor of the City of Vienna, Covid-19
  Principal Investigator
• Immunodominance of flavivirus CD4 T cell responses (2016)
  Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Stand alone project (2016-2021)
  Principal Investigator

Selected publications

1. Koblischke, M, et al. 2020. CD4 T cell determinants in West Nile virus disease and asymptomatic infection. Frontiers in Immunolgy 2020, doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.00016.
2. Koblischke, M, et al. 2018. Structural influence on the dominance of virus-specific CD4 T cell epitopes in Zika virus infection. Frontiers in Immunolgy 2018, doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01196
3. Koblischke, M. et al., 2017. Protein structure shapes immunodominance in the CD4 T cell response to yellow fever vaccination. Scientific Reports, 7(1). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-0
4. Aberle JH, et al. 2015. Human CD4+ T Helper Cell Responses after Tick-Borne Encephalitis Vaccination and Infection. PLoS One 10(10): e0140545. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140545
5. Malafa S et al., 2020. Impact of flavivirus vaccine-induced immunity on primary Zika virus antibody response in humans. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008034