Vienna ImmunoLectures

Dr. Iris Gratz is Associate Professor and Deputy Chair of the Dept. of Biosciences and Medical Biology at the University of Salzburg, Austria. After studying Biology and Genetics, completion of her PhD studies in Immunology and a PostDoc at the University of Salzburg, Iris moved to the United States in 2009 to join the Lab of Abul Abbas at the Department of Pathology of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In the Abbas lab, she investigated tissue-resident regulatory T cells (Tregs) and made seminal discoveries in context with peripheral cutaneous Tregs in mice and humans. After becoming Assistant Adjunct Professor at UCSF in 2012, Iris returned to Austria in 2014 to accept a position as Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Biosciences at the University of Salzburg and as Affiliate Researcher at the EB House Austria at the University Hospital Salzburg. Since 2017, she has an appointment as Affiliate Investigator of the Benaroya Research Institute ad Virginia Mason, USA and since 2019, Iris holds her current Associate Professor position at the University of Salzburg. Today, the Gratz lab works at the intersection of autoimmunity, inflammation and cancer with a focus on the skin.  

About Iris's research: Autoimmunity is caused by immune cells attacking harmless self-antigens (or commensal microbes) in host tissues, which they are supposed to protect. Conversely, cancer is a disease in which altered self-cells are not efficiently cleared from the tissue and are thus allowed to multiply. As a target tissue, we study the skin, a crucial barrier of the body against pathogenic invaders that is rich in immune cells. The principal goal of our research is to understand the role of cutaneous T cells and their cross-talk with skin structural cells in autoimmunity, wound healing and cancer. We utilize organotypic 3D-skin and tumor cultures and unique (humanized) mouse models to answer our basic research questions and perform preclinical studies. The overall goal of our group is to understand basic mechanisms of tissue immune regulation with the goal to lay the groundwork for novel therapeutic strategies to treat chronic and debilitating inflammatory skin conditions and skin cancer.

More info: http://www.uni-salzburg.at/gratz  

Shinya Sakaguchi completed his Master’s degree in Medical Science in 2002 at the University of Tokyo. In 2004, he joined the PhD program in Molecular Biology at the University of Vienna, where he elucidated molecular mechanisms controlling T cell development. After completing his PhD, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Immunology, CePII, Medical University of Vienna. He was appointed Assistant Professor at the Medical University of Vienna in 2016 and promoted to Associate Professor three years later. His research group currently focuses on elucidating the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of cytotoxic T cell differentiation.

About Shinya’s research: CD8⁺ T cells play a central role during immune responses against viruses, intracellular bacteria and protozoan parasites, and are also key regulators of anti-tumor immunity. The main research topic of Sakaguchi lab is to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling the differentiation of peripheral CD8⁺ T cells, particularly focusing on transcriptional and epigenetic regulations. We are currently investigating the roles of BTB-POZ zinc finger proteins and histone deacetylases for memory and exhausted T cell differentiation. Moreover, we aim to identify novel transcriptional/epigenetic regulators controlling these processes. To address these research questions, we employ multi-color flow cytometry, next-generation sequencing, mouse viral infection and tumor models, biochemical/molecular approaches, retroviral-mediated gene transduction and CRISPR-mediated gene knockout in primary CD8⁺ T cells.

More Info: https://pii.meduniwien.ac.at/en/our-departments/institute-of-immunology/science-research-/-research-divisions-/-research-groups/sakaguchi-laboratory/