Professor Thomas Langmann of Cologne's research on the immune memory of the eyes was re-awarded funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Lifelong immune memory could play a decisive role in age-related chronic eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or diabetic retinopathy. Systemic infections or metabolic disorders can cause specific damage to the eye.

In recent years, the group has received funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for groundbreaking findings on immune memory in the eye, published in the prestigious journal Science. Building on this successful preliminary work, the DFG has now extended the funding of the "Immune Memory" research project led by Professor Dr. Thomas Langmann, director of the Department of Experimental Immunology of the Eye at the Center for Ophthalmology at the University Hospital of Cologne and the Faculty of Medicine and principal investigator at the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC, University of Cologne), for a further three years with more than half a million euros.

"I am particularly pleased that the DFG is funding our international project, which is carried out in cooperation with the University College London in England and the Université de Montréal in Canada, for another three years with a very large amount for an individual proposal," said Prof. Langmann. What once began as a "pipe dream" and "niche project" is now a central component of basic immunological research on the retina and the eye as a whole.

The research project is also carried out in close cooperation with the CRC 1607 "Immunomodulating and anti-(lymph)angiogenic therapies in age-related blind eye diseases" (speaker: Prof. Dr. Claus Cursiefen). In the medium term, the project aims to identify new pharmacological targets and modulators of immune memory that could slow down or even stop the progression of degenerative eye diseases and thus contribute to the prevention of blindness in the long term.

Scientific contact
Professor Dr. Thomas Langmann 
thomas.langmann@uk-koeln.de

This message has been modified by the CMMC (K. Heber & D. Grosskopf-Kroiher) and is based on the text provided by the press and communications team of the University Hospital Cologne (original German version here).