Brähler, Sebastian - CAP 17

Inflammatory diseases of the kidney filtering units (glomeruli) are a leading cause of chronic renal insufficiency. Despite tremendous advances in our disease understanding, the treatment options remain limited, therefore the investigation of inflammatory processes is of key importance for the development of targeted treatment strategies.

The kidney contains a dense network of immune cells, which is of central importance for organ homeostasis but can also lead to tissue damage and ultimately renal failure. While both kidney biology and renal immunology have made tremendous progress in the past, the interaction between kidney cells like tubulus cells or podocytes and immune cells is still poorly understood.

In the past our group has investigated the function of podocytes as senders and recipients of inflammatory signals in glomerulonephritis. We are particularly interested in finding immunomodulatory and nephroprotective pathways that can be used as future treatment strategies. Recently, we were able to redefine the function of cDC1 and cDC2 dendritic cells in glomerulonephritis and could show that cDC1 have strong renoprotective properties. We were successful in demonstrating that BTLA is a strongly immunosuppressive checkpoint molecule in glomerulonephritis.

We are currently investigating the following areas:

1. Cell-specific characterization of the HVEM/ BTLA – pathway in glomerulonephritis as a foundation for the development of new treatment strategies.
    
2. Immune cell metabolism in renal diseases. Metabolism is a fundamental prerequisite for immune cell activation and function. Our aim is to investigate the involvement of key metabolic pathways in the pathogenesis of renal diseases.
    
3. Intraglomerular inflammatory signaling in focal-segmental glomerulosclerosis, a chronic disease of the kidney filtering units leading to proteinuria and loss of kidney function.
    
4. T-cell engineering: We aim to create T-cells that respond specifically to renal inflammation and have local anti-inflammatory properties.

For more information about Dr. Brähler´s work, please check this site.