Research Group: Cellular Interactions in Liver Injuries and Regeneration
The liver is a vital and complex organ, with potent roles in controlling individuals’ metabolism and systemic immune response in normal condition, but also upon liver disease. Importantly, the liver is populated by multiple cell types; including hepatocytes, hepatic stellate cells, liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, and cholangiocytes, as well as very diverse myeloid and lymphoid immune cell populations. Because of such functional and cellular diversity, we study liver homeostasis, injury and repair using elaborate multiplexed approaches (either in situ or in vitro) made possible by recent technological advances.
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Research Focus
Cells of different ontology or activation status communicate with each other through multiple pathways in a (patho-)physiological context. We believe a better understanding of the complex liver microenvironment and intercellular networks is key to unravelling novel and therapeutically relevant targets for disease treatment. We are more specifically exploring multiplex immunostaining coupled with digital image analysis, and liver-on-a-chip models using primary cells (see below).
Keywords
Liver diseases:
- Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
- Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)
- Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC)
- Cholangiocarcinoma
- Gut-liver axis
- Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD)
In situ immune microenvironment characterization:
- Multiplex Immunohistochemistry
- Digital microscopy image analysis
- Imaging Cytometry
In vitro models:
- Liver-on-a-chip
- Primary liver cell isolation
- Gene interference
Team Members
Postdoctoral fellow/Research staff
Resident physician
PhD fellow
PhD Student (medicine)
Research associate
PhD Fellow
PhD fellow
PhD student
PhD student (medicine)
Collaborations
- Myriam Aouadi, PhD (Karoliska Institute, Stockholm, Schweden)
- Prof. Christian Conrad (BIH Charité - Intelligent Imaging)
- Bin Gao, MD, PhD (NIH, Laboratory of Liver Diseases, Bethesda, MD, USA)
- Dr. Christian Hudert (Klinik für Pädiatrie mit Schwerpunkt Gastroenterologie, Nephrologie und Stoffwechselmedizin)
- Dr. Laura Kalveram (Klinik für Pädiatrie mit Schwerpunkt Gastroenterologie, Nephrologie und Stoffswechselmediz)
- Prof. Fouad Lafdil (Université Paris-Est-Créteil, France)
- PD Alexander Mosig (Universitätsklinikum Jena, Inst. für Biochemie)
- Prof. Igor Sauer (Experimentelle Chirurgie)
- Prof. Birgit Sawitzki (Institut für Medizinische Immunologie)