Detail

Keywords

Adaptive Immunity; Bacterial Infections; Immunity, Innate; Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; Macrophages

Research interests

I am interested in the structure and function of surface receptors on T cells and antigen presenting cells to identify novel targets for influencing abnormal and unwanted immune reactions in immunological disorders and diseases. Internationally well recognized are the investigations, which contribute to the understanding of how GPI-anchored receptors transduce signals across the plasma membrane. These studies were fundamental for the identification and characterization of special membrane microdomains, called lipid rafts, which are more and more characterized to control signal transduction across the plasma membrane. At the moment, I am focusing on the development of: 1) 3G nanodevices to specifically transport drugs and factors to pathologic cells in immunological diseases, 2) novel assays for the diagnosis of bacterial infections and 3) advanced imaging to analyze the dynamic of receptors and signaling molecules in the immunological synapse of living T- and antigen presenting cells with the aim to obtain novel insight into the initiation and control of the adaptive immune response and for identifying nanostructure-markers and targets for precision medicine. I published more than 200 scientific papers, a variety in the very top journals such as Cell, Science, Nature Methods that count for an h-factor of 54.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

Cell culture, multi-parameter flow cytometry, molecular cloning, shRNA silencing, various immunological techniques (isolation, cultivation and stimulation of immune cells, ELISA, immunofluorescence, immunobiochemistry including immunoprecipitation and multiplex immunoblotting, etc), chromatography, advanced imaging (single molecule analysis).  Top-level infrastructure including tissue culture, HPLC, FPLC, various immunodetection systems including ELISAs and Luminex, super-resolution fluorescence microscope for live cell imaging and advanced flow cytometers able to sort and analyse up to 18 cellular parameters, that are crucial for multicolour and functional analyses of immune cells.

Grants

• ID-LYME - A novel immunity-based test for early diagnosis of Lyme disease (2016)
  Source of Funding: EU, Horizon 2020 Call H2020-FTIPilot-2015-1
  Principal Investigator
• Cell Communication in Health and Disease, CCHD (Member) (2015)
  Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Doctoral Program
  Principal Investigator
• FOLSMART - Folate-Target Nanodevies To Activated Macrophages For Rheumatoid Arthritis (project partner) (2015)
  Source of Funding: EU, H2020-NMP-PILOTS-2015
  Principal Investigator

Selected publications

1. Ohradanova-Repic, A. et al., 2018. Extracellular Purine Metabolism Is the Switchboard of Immunosuppressive Macrophages and a Novel Target to Treat Diseases With Macrophage Imbalances. Frontiers in Immunology, 9. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2018.00852.
2. Ohradanova-Repic, A. et al., 2018. Fab antibody fragment-functionalized liposomes for specific targeting of antigen-positive cells. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, 14(1), pp.123-130. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nano.2017.09.003.
3. Baumgart, F. et al., 2016. Varying label density allows artifact-free analysis of membrane-protein nanoclusters. Nature Methods, 13(8), pp.661-664. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3897.
4. Bohuslav, J., 1995. Urokinase plasminogen activator receptor, beta 2-integrins, and Src- kinases within a single receptor complex of human monocytes. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 181(4), pp.1381-1390. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1084/jem.181.4.1381.
5. Stefanova, I. et al., 1991. GPI-anchored cell-surface molecules complexed to protein tyrosine kinases. Science, 254(5034), pp.1016-1019. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1719635.