Antibodies protect us against infection by tagging viruses and bacteria inside the body, helping neutralize these pathogens. Many bacteria living in the intestinal tract do not make us ill—these microbiota are controlled by type-A antibodies, which principally live on the mucous membranes. “There is much we still don’t know about type/A or IgA antibodies,” says Assistant professor Dr. Tim Rollenske of the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Experimental Immunology (IMMEI) at University Hospital Bonn. Humans produce large quantities of IgA, especially to regulate our gut bacteria. “It is not yet known what the purpose is behind such a large amount of type A antibodies,” Dr. Rollenske explains, who is now head of an Emmy Noether Research Group at the University of Bonn funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The aim of the research group’s project titled “IgA-select: B cell selection and function in intestinal antibody responses to microbiota” is to understand how IgA influences intestinal flora and the corresponding effects on immune system functioning in the intestinal tract.
Multiple simultaneous research approaches
Over the next six years the German Research Foundation will provide up to two million euros in grants supporting Dr. Rollenske’s work. “This funding enables me to pursue multiple angles at the same time via multiple research approaches,” he notes, “which will definitely be of great help in establishing a long-term working group focused on host-microbiota interaction.” In the longer term, the project should yield insights allowing more effective vaccination strategies against pathogens in the mucous membranes. His researcher team is also interested in identifying antibodies of potential benefit against infections involving antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The Emmy Noether Program, sponsored by the German Research Foundation, creates opportunities for high-caliber early-career researchers like Dr. Rollenske to lead a research group of younger colleagues as a six-year path to potential tenure as a full university professor.
Bio
Born in 1987, Tim Rollenske studied molecular biology at the University of Vienna and did his doctoral dissertation on antibodies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. In Germany he has worked at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, and in Switzerland at the Maurice Müller Laboratories and Inselspital clinic in Bern. Since April Dr. Rollenske has been assistant professor working at the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Experimental Immunology (IMMEI) in Bonn. He is a member of the ImmunoSensation2 Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn and holds a grant from the Multidisciplinary Center for Infectious Diseases at the University of Bern. He had a patent for protective antibodies approved in 2018, and his work has received several awards, including from the German Society for Immunology and the Paul Ehrlich Society of Chemotherapy.