FRIDAY NOON SEMINARS | NOVEMBER 8 | 12H00 | MAIN AUDITORIUM
Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms required for normal Thymus Development and Function
Georg A. Holländer, Department of Biomedicine, The University Children's Hospital of Basel, Switzerland

Georg Hollander is our invited speaker for this week’s Friday Noon Seminars. Georg is a Professor of Molecular Medicine in Paediatrics and the Head of the Department of Research at the University Children’s Hospital, Basel, Switzerland.
His group is focused in delineating the cellular and molecular routes that control thymus organogenesis and function. The understanding of the physiology of the thymus is key to comprehend how our adaptive immune system distinguishes "foes" from "friends", or in other words, how it achieves the equilibrium between adequate responses against threatening pathogens and prevention of autoimmunity. This exquisite balance is established within the thymus by thymic epithelial cells (TECs), which provide a specialised microenvironment to “educate” the differentiation and selection of T lymphocytes.

Georg’s laboratory is specifically interested in the genetic and epigenetic control of thymic epithelial cell (TEC) differentiation and function. Taking advantage of state of the art gene-targeted mice models, his ongoing projects involve the analyses of global gene expression profiling, genetic networks and DNA methylation patterns of TEC populations, and the role of microRNA in TEC development and function. He is also investigating different therapeutic strategies to repair/replace damaged thymic tissue in clinical contexts associated poor T cell responses, including in congenital immunodeficiencies, bone marrow transplantations and aging.

You can find more details about his research at:
http://biomedizin.unibas.ch/nc/research/research-group-details/home/researchgroup/pediatric-immunology/

Recent references:
Epithelial cytoprotection sustains ectopic expression of tissue-restricted antigens in the thymus during murine acute GVHD.
Dertschnig S, Nusspaumer G, Ivanek R, Hauri-Hohl MM, Holländer GA, Krenger W.
Blood. 2013 Aug 1;122(5):837-41.

MicroRNAs control the maintenance of thymic epithelia and their competence for T lineage commitment and thymocyte selection.
Zuklys S, Mayer CE, Zhanybekova S, Stefanski HE, Nusspaumer G, Gill J, Barthlott T, Chappaz S, Nitta T, Dooley J, Nogales-Cadenas R, Takahama Y, Finke D, Liston A, Blazar BR, Pascual-Montano A, Holländer GA.
J Immunol. 2012 Oct 15;189(8):3894-904.

Thymic T-cell development in allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
Krenger W, Blazar BR, Holländer GA.
Blood. 2011 Jun 23;117(25):6768-76

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