Programme, May 15, 2025
- 4:30 - 5:15 PM | "T cell regulation by bacterial metabolites”
Clarissa Campbell, CeMM – Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences - 5:15 - 6:00 PM | "Metabolic regulation of tissue homeostasis by macrophages”
Thomas Weichhart, Institue of Medical Genetics, Medical University of Vienna - 6:00 - 6:30 PM | Get-together
Clarissa Campbell, CeMM
T cell regulation by bacterial metabolitesClarissa Campbell studied biology with a minor in genetics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and subsequently earned a master’s degree from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), investigating how bacterial molecules exert immunomodulatory effects on mammalian cells via nuclear receptors, a topic she would continue to explore throughout her career.
She joined the Tri-Institutional Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York as a graduate student where she specialized in mucosal immunology and regulatory T (Treg) cell biology. After obtaining her PhD, Clarissa Campbell remained under the mentorship of Dr. Alexander Rudensky at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to continue her work on host-commensal interactions and pursue broader scientific questions bridging the fields of immunology and metabolism. Her research has characterized a circuit whereby microbial metabolites including short-chain fatty acids and secondary bile acids facilitate the differentiation of peripherally induced Treg cells, which in turn suppress immune responses to colonization and preserve a niche for a group of intestinal bacteria. More recently, she found that a bile acid-sensing nuclear receptor contributes to the cell-intrinsic responsiveness of effector T cells to fasting. Clarissa Campbell joined CeMM as a principal investigator in July 2021. Her lab is interested in investigating how changes in microbial and organismal metabolism contribute to regulating immune-cell function.
About Clarissa’s research: Our goal is to understand how immunity and metabolism are integrated at the organismal level. Adaptive lymphocytes of higher vertebrates play an essential role in immunity and perform extensive accessory functions that contribute to tissue homeostasis. Although the fundamental operative principles of immune cells are well characterized, many functional mechanisms still lack contextualization in physiological settings and therefore fail to yield novel concepts and therapeutic avenues. We are investigating how metabolic cues affect the differentiation and function of T cells. Our studies focus on the intestinal mucosa, where T cells are exposed to a myriad of microbial metabolites and dietary nutrients. We also want to understand how changes in organismal metabolism that occur as a consequence of gastrointestinal infections impact immune responses. Our group uses gnotobiotic husbandry, engineered bacterial strains, metabolomics and experimental infection to identify novel mechanisms contributing to the regulation of T cell function in physiological settings.
More info: https://cemm.at/research/groups/clarissa-campbell-group
Thomas Weichhart, Medical University of Vienna
Metabolic regulation of tissue homeostasis by macrophagesThomas Weichhart studied biology and genetics at the University of Vienna and earned his PhD in 2005 under the supervision of Alexander von Gabain, identifying an endogenous ligand for TLR4.
Following a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Marcus Säemann at the Medical University of Vienna’s Institute of Nephrology and Dialysis, he established his independent research group and has been an Associate Professor at the Center of Pathobiochemistry and Genetics since 2014. As a principal investigator, he has contributed to understanding how metabolic pathways regulate immune function in health and disease. He currently coordinates an FWF-funded SFB consortium on immunometabolism.
About Thomas’ research: The immune system is tightly regulated by cellular metabolism, which dictates how immune cells respond to infections, cancer, and chronic inflammatory diseases. Dysregulation of these metabolic networks can cause diseases such as sarcoidosis, cancer, and autoimmunity. Thomas’s lab investigates how metabolic signals with a focus on mTOR and specific metabolites control immune cell function. Recent work has explored metabolic shifts in macrophages during granuloma formation in sarcoidosis and the therapeutic potential of mTOR inhibition. Additionally, his team examines how macrophage-derived metabolites influence tissue and immune cell function to regulate tissue homeostasis and the outcome of inflammatory disease.
More info: https://www.weichhart-lab.com
Programme, March 18, 2025
- 4:30 -5:15 p.m.
“SOCIAL IMMUNITY: the colony-wide immune system of insect colonies”
Sylvia Cremer
Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg - 5:15 – 6:00 p.m.
“High Throughput Genome Engineering to Decode T cell Functions”
Ralf Schmidt
Medical University of Vienna, Department of Laboratory Medicine, KILM - 6:00 - 6:30 p.m.
Get-together
Sylvia Cremer, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
SOCIAL IMMUNITY: the colony-wide immune system of insect coloniesSylvia Cremer studied biology at the University of Erlangen, and received her PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in 2002 from the University of Regensburg. After a postdoc at the University of Copenhagen and a Junior Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies (WIKO) in Berlin, she performed her Habilitation at the University of Regensburg in 2010. Since then, she works at the ISTA (Institute of Science and Technology Austria) in Klosterneuburg, first as Assistant Professor, and since 2015 as Full Professor.
Her research was predominantly funded by the ERC, both by a Starting and Consolidator grant. She received multiple awards for her research, including the Walther Arndt Prize of the German Zoological Society DZG (2013) and the Elisabeth Lutz Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences ÖAW (2015).
Research
Sylvia Cremer’s research focuses on the cooperative disease defence of social insect colonies, particularly ants. In addition to the individual immune systems of all colony members, these collective and cooperative actions provide the colony with disease protection, or Social Immunity. The colony-level disease defences of social insects show an amazingly similar organisation to the immune system of individual organisms. This is because insect colonies form super-organisms, where the individual insects – just like cells within a body – specialise on either reproduction (the queen resp. germline) or maintenance (the sterile workers resp. soma). The fitness of each individual is therefore strictly connected to the overall fitness of the colony, promoting unconditional cooperation between colony members. This resulted in the evolution of highly sophisticated colony disease defences, including hygienic suicide by social apoptosis and altruistic ‘find me and eat me’ signalling of infected individuals.
Ralf Schmidt, Dept. of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of Vienna
High Throughput Genome Engineering to Decode T Cell FunctionsRalf’s lab focuses on developing and applying genome engineering approaches to better understand T cell biology and help design novel therapeutics. During his postdoc in the Marson lab at UCSF and Gladstone Institutes, he contributed to establishing large-scale CRISPR screening platforms in primary human T cells. Currently, his group at MedUni Vienna aims to further develop genetic tools to study fundamental T cell functions and potentially improve cell therapies. The Schmidt lab is particularly interested in deciphering the genetic code controlling T cell responses and rewiring regulatory circuits to enhance their therapeutic potential in cancer, autoimmunity and beyond.