It is our great pleasure to welcome a new “lab member” – Vilber Fusion Absolute! It is capable of both chemiluminescence and fluorescence imaging, and has an automated image acquisition program. With its high-quality images and advanced software, we can even perform absolute quantification of proteins.
We can’t wait to analyse our Western Blots with Vilber Fusion Absolute!
Text by Yiqi, photos by Yicheng and Melissa.
A bit over six years ago, the Innates moved from MPI to the lovely “Schneckebunker” in the city centre. Now, after years of planning and replanning, we have moved again to our new home in TranslaTUM! Leaving Schnecke was not easy – it contained so much of our memories, and a bit too much of stuff (or trash, the borderline was often unclear). After all, this building has been occupied by researchers for more than three decades! It took us a while to sort out the things to bring with us while admiring the design of some historical lab pieces…
The big days came at the end of December – carton after carton, truck after truck, we were moving! There were unexpected challenges every day, and it was a stressful time for everyone. However, we managed it with an incredible team effort.
We had our last Christmas party in Schnecke and decorated the walls with colourful paintings. Many ex-Innates came to experience Schnecke one last time. In the upcoming years, it will be replaced by a brand-new building for multiple sclerosis research.
Goodbye Schnecke – thank you for hosting us with your special charm! Hello TranslaTUM – we’re ready for a fresh start!
Text by Yiqi, photos by Dorsa, Lara and Virginie.
Protein turnover is crucial to the cellular response to internal and external changes. In our publication in Cell Systems, we systematically profiled the protein turnover changes in cells infected by the influenza A virus (IAV). We identified more than a thousand virus-affected proteins with turnover changes (tVAPs) and demonstrated their important roles in IAV infection by intersecting them with published IAV interactome and genome-wide screens and performing additional functional analyses. We further investigated a splicing factor GPKOW, which we found to be an antiviral tVAP that modulates the host’s innate immune response. The data can be explored here: https://pulsechase.innatelab.org/
Congratulations to Yiqi, Chris, Philipp and Alexey – it was a successful collaboration across multiple generations of Innates!
Read more here: Protein turnover regulation is critical for influenza A virus infection
Text by Yiqi.
At the beginning of October, the world welcomed another fresh doctor – Karsten held a great defence on his thesis “Unveiling Antiviral Roles of Interferon-Stimulated Genes Through Time-Resolved CRISPR/Cas9 Screening”. Congratulations Dr Krey – you deserve an additional doctor title in engineering, for the amount of equipment you fixed in the lab!
With your dedication and creativity, we believe you’ll be accomplished in anything you do in your future endeavours! Dear Karsten, we are grateful to have a warm-hearted and resourceful colleague like you, and we wish you all the best in your new life in Vienna!
Read his first author papers here:
At the end of summer, we
had to part ways with our beloved data scientist Sabri. Once again, we had a
farewell party, where we enjoyed an amazing homemade dinner by Sabri, trying to
engrave the two most important teachings of Sabri in our mind – “Have you tried
switching it off and on again?” and “GIGO – garbage in, garbage out”.
Dear Sabri, thank you
for analysing our proteomics and Incucyte data and keeping our IT system in
shape. You’re always approachable and ready to help, it was our pleasure
working with you! We wish you all the best in your new career!
Text by Yiqi.
In our publication in EMBO reports, we investigated the effectiveness of LNP-formulated IFNλ1 mRNA (ETH47) in treating SARS-CoV-2 infection. ETH47 successfully induced an ISG response without excessive inflammation and inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication in our in vitro and in vivo models. These promising results highlighted the possibility of using mRNA therapy in treating virus infections and laid the foundations for the upcoming clinical trials of ETH47.
Congratulations to Yiqi, Vince, and our collaborators from ETHRIS and Aarhus University!
Read more here: Mucosal IFNλ1 mRNA-based immunomodulation effectively reduces SARS-CoV-2 induced mortality in mice
Text by Yiqi.
The recent outbreaks of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) raised concerns about the impact of poxviruses on public health. In our publication in Nature Communications, we present a comprehensive analysis of the transcriptomic, proteomic and phosphoproteomic changes induced by MPXV infection in primary cells. In addition to identifying virus-perturbed pathways, such as innate immunity and TGF-β signalling, we revealed dynamic phosphorylation of both host and virus proteins and uncovered the role of MPXV H5 phosphorylation in its function. Leveraging our omics data, we predicted and validated several drugs that inhibit MPXV replication. We hope our research will deepen the understanding of MPXV biology and facilitate the development of novel therapeutics against MPXV!
Congratulations to Yiqi, Valter, Vince, Quirin, Sabri, Karsten, Alex, and all the collaborators involved in this study!
Read more here: Multi-omics characterization of the monkeypox virus infection
Text by Yiqi.
Every year, we welcome new members and say goodbye to those moving on, but no farewell has been harder than Lila’s. We threw a big party in April for Lila and a few others leaving at similar times, revisiting all the good memories across generations of Innates.
Dear Lila, thank you for keeping the lab running all these years! Words cannot fully express our gratitude, for you’re not only a lab manager who helped with our scientific challenges but also a counsellor who guided us through our inner struggles. Your professional skills, in combination with your kindness and deep understanding of different cultures, have greatly shaped our lab. We will surely miss you a lot, and we wish you the best of luck with whatever lies ahead!
Update in March 2025 – congratulations to Lila on her new job at Institute Curie in Paris!
Text by Yiqi, photos by Melissa and Virginie.
Our 2024 has an exciting start already: at the end of February, Quirin successfully defended his thesis “Identification and characterization of restricting host factors for viral replication”. Congratulations Dr Emslander! Quirin efficiently finished several projects with us in just under four years. We wish you a relaxing and well-deserved holiday and a lot of success in your career ahead!
Read his first author papers here:
Text by Yiqi, photo by Melissa.
Line’s PhD research is now published in EMBO! In this study, we systematically investigated the responses of human macrophages to extracellular nucleotides and revealed that adenine- and uridine-based nucleotides induce a specific and transient cytokine response through activating MAPK signaling pathway. We further categorized the nucleotide sensing P2Ys into two subgroups: P2Y1/2/6/11 that govern inflammatory responses via cytokine induction, and P2Y4/11/12/13/14 that directly induce antiviral responses.
Congratulations to Line, Yiqi, Chris, Lila, and all the collaborators involved in this study!
Read more in the EMBO paper:
Systematic P2Y receptor survey identifies P2Y11 as modulator of immune responses and virus replication in macrophages
Text by Yiqi, illustration by Line.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pichlmair
Immunopathology of Virus Infections Laboratory, Institute of Virology, Technical University of Munich
Einsteinstr. 25, D-81675 Munich, Germany
tel: +49 (0) 89 4140 9270, email: andreas.pichlmair@tum.de
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