Bewilligungen im Jahr 2008 - Volkswagen Stiftung

- 3 -
Verlängerung nach positiver Evaluation der Lichtenberg-Professur
Berlin
Immunological memory against viruses (Weiterführung)
Bewilligung: 10.10.2011 Laufzeit: 3 Jahre
Immunological memory can protect the organism from diseases from which it has
previously recovered. However, it also bears the risk to create immunopathology and
autoimmunity. It is maintained by long-lived antibody-secreting plasma cells and memory
B and T cells that differentiate from naïve precursor cells upon antigen exposure. During
the initial activation, memory cells "learn" to support select types of immune responses
and memorize this instruction in later immune challenges. Aim of this Lichtenberg-Professorship
is a molecular understanding of the generation, maintenance and functional
plasticity of immunological memory against pathogens and autoantigens. We address
these questions in settings of acute and chronic inflammation and infections in mice and
human beings. Thereby we aim to improve protective immunological memory and
deactivate or reprogram pathogenic pro-inflammatory memory cells in a targeted manner
to induce anti-inflammatory functional activities. We study the molecular factors that
regulate the longevity of memory cells and control the stability or flexibility of their pro-
and anti-inflammatory effector mechanisms. The functional capacities of memory cells –
protective immunity or immunopathology and autoimmunity – are determined in vivo.
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Experimentelle Immunologie / Dt. Rheumaforschungszentrum (DRFZ)
Prof. Dr. Max Löhning
Charitéplatz 1
10117 Berlin
Tel.: 030 28460-760 // Fax: 030 28460-773
____________
Oldenburg
Animal navigation from behaviour and cognition to molecular mechanisms (Weiterführung)
Bewilligung: 25.11.2011 Laufzeit: 3 Jahre
The professorship is focused on understanding the behavioural, molecular, physiological
and cognitive mechanisms underlying migration and long-distance navigation. What
mechanisms enable birds with a brain weighing less than a gram to circumnavigate the
globe with a precision unobtainable by human navigators before the emergence of GPS
satellites? How do young birds find the species specific wintering quarter on their own,
even though they have never been there before? How does experience influence their
spatiotemporal orientation strategies? What is the physiological basis for sensing the
relevant cues? How do animals sense the Earth's magnetic field? How is navigational
information processed in the brain? What genes are involved? To successfully answer
these questions, a wide range of multidisciplinary approaches are needed. Therefore,
neurobiology, neuroanatomy, molecular biology, mathematical modelling and simulations,
physics and newly developed laboratory equipment in combination with behavioural
experiments and analyses of field data will be used to achive a better understanding of
mechanism enabling animals to navigate over thousands of kilometres.
Universität Oldenburg
Institut für Biologie und Umweltwissenschaften
Prof. Dr. Henrik Mouritsen
Ammerländer Heerstraße 114-118
26129 Oldenburg
Tel.: 0441 798 3081 // Fax: 0441 798 3620
____________