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Limbic encephalitis (LE) is increasingly recognized as a possible cause of chronic temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Key aspects of such a transient inflammation in the limbic system are still largely enigmatic. We use a combination of complementary state-of-the-art cell culture, animal model and human TLE biomaterial experimental approaches. We examine the functional consequences of exposure of primary neuronal cell cultures to several LE-relevant autoantibodies as well as to new auto-antibodies recently detected in our screens of LE-TLE patient biofluids.

Urothelial carcinoma is a frequent disease with a poor prognosis. Recently, immunotherapy with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition has become an established treatment option. 

Tumor cell expression of HLA (human leukocyte antigen) is a prerequisite for tumor antigen presentation and theoretically for the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Some tumors lose HLA expression over time. 

Our project wants to describe the importance of HLA expression for the prognosis and response to immunotherapy in patients with urothelial carcinoma.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Lung cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and accounts for 18.4% of all cancer-related deaths. Our group is investigating how mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) and their initiated pathways contribute to physiological and pathophysiological outcomes as well as their function in eliciting immune responses.

Patients with severe congenital neutropenia (CN) have a low neutrophil number in peripheral blood, a type of blood cells that defences our body from bacterial infections. The deficiency of neutrophils leads to recurrent infections. Treatment with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) ameliorates symptoms and reduces infections in CN patients. CN is a cancer predisposition syndrome with high risk of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) development.

Falls and gait impairments are major drivers for a reduced quality of life and impaired social functioning in the elderly. Fall related injuries determine the morbidity of the patients thus producing relevant burden to our health economy systems. Technical gait analysis is able to quantify gait parameters with high accuracy. In this project we apply artificial intelligence procedures to gait data for classification and stability estimation.

Podocytes form an important part of the kidney filter. Their foot processes wrap around capillaries. Precisely regulated protein metabolism is quintessential to the function of these specialized cells as damage or loss may result in impaired renal function. Protein metabolism is widely regulated by the ubiquitin proteasomal system. Ubiquitination may target proteins for degradation or alter their function as signalling molecules. HUWE1 is such an ubiquitinizing enzyme. We postulate that it plays an essential role in maintaining podocyte homoeostasis.

Atherosclerosis remains the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Western societies. In advanced stages of the disease, excessive cell death fuels inflammation and promote plaque instability, hence increasing the risk of plaque rupture and subsequent thrombosis. Neutrophils -main blood leukocyte in humans- are endowed with a sophisticate machinery to fight pathogens that also contributes to neutrophil-mediated tissue damage.

The human voice is produced by the two oscillating vocal folds in the larynx. The basic sound of the voice is generated in the resulting airflow immediately above the vocal folds. This airflow cannot be measured in living patients and is therefore not taken into account in medical diagnostics and treatment of voice disorders. Thus, the aim of the project is to develop a realistic larynx model to investigate the entire process. The model includes elastic silicone vocal folds and reproduces the dynamics of the laryngeal cartilages to control the posturing of the vocal folds.

The aim of the doctoral program "Klin-StrucMed" of the Hannover Medical School, which has been funded by the EKFS since 2015, is to motivate excellent medical students to undertake excellent and well supervised medical doctoral projects. The program should thus be an entry-level opportunity into the career path of the clinician scientist. During the program, the students are exempt from student obligations for 12 months and participate in a specially designed study program and conduct a peer-reviewed research project.