The German Research Foundation is setting up a new Collaborative Research Center (SFB) at the University of Bonn. The SFB 1454 "Metaflammation and Cellular Programming" deals with the connection between a Western lifestyle and chronic inflammatory diseases - for example, how excessive calorie intake coupled with insufficient exercise can promote the development of cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases or a metabolic syndrome.
The spokesperson is Prof. Dr. Eicke Latz, who is also spokesperson for ImmunoSensation2. The researchers use a holistic approach to investigate why lifestyle or environmental factors such as obesity, smoking or insufficient exercise influence the incorrect programming of immune cells and thus cause "metaflammation" - a chronic inflammation caused by the immune system.
The scientists are studying how cells interact in inflamed tissue and how molecular signaling pathways contribute to the development of diseases during metaflammation.
The SFB brings together the expertise of scientists from the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Philosophy. Researchers from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn, the Max Planck Institute for Metabolic Research in Cologne and the "Braunschweig Integrated Center of Systems Biology" are also involved.
Most of the sub-projects of the new SFB are being carried out by scientists from the University Hospital Bonn and the Life and Medical Sciences Institute (LIMES).
"A unique selling point of our Collaborative Research Center is the system immunological approach with which we want to understand complex mechanisms that cause diseases," says Prof. Eicke Latz from the Institute for Innate Immunity at the University Hospital Bonn. On the one hand, these findings are intended to produce new therapeutic approaches and the development of drugs. On the other hand, the newly discovered mechanisms behind the development of metaflammation should provide the necessary knowledge to better prevent common diseases that can be traced back to an unhealthy lifestyle and environmental influences.
Contact
Institute of Innate Immunity
Phone: +49 (0)228 287 51239 (Secretary)
