Schmidt, Nathalie - CAP 47

• Advancing our fundamental understanding of T cell immunometabolism and the close connection between lipid metabolism and immune function
• Pinning down the impact of metabolic diseases and metabolic modulators on T cell immunity
• Identifying at-risk populations that may benefit from immune boosting strategies to enhance immune responses to infections and vaccines even after weight loss.
• Identifying new metabolic targets for the development of novel preventive and therapeutic strategies to protect the continuously growing obese population.
• Determining the role of sex and gender in infectious diseases, immunity and immunometabolism

The prevalence of obesity is rapidly rising with 2.5 billion adults worldwide being overweight or obese. Increased body weight contributes to 5 million deaths annually and is a risk factor for cancer as well as a severe course and a high mortality of infections. This has major consequences for personal and public health, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exemplified the pressure severe viral infections put on the health care system. Understanding underlying mechanisms is critical to combat this public health issue by identifying at-risk populations and developing new therapies for the highly vulnerable obese population. Traditionally, clinical and basic research focuses on male participants and animals; however, over the last years it has become clear that sex and gender can influence the course of diseases and the responses to drug treatment.