ImmunoSensation2 is a Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). We are dedicated to the study of innate immunity beyond the boundaries of classical immunology. We address the immune system as a sensory organ for health, which we term the immune sensory system. We are immunologists, neurobiologists, systems biologists, biochemists, biophysicists and mathematicians from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Bonn and the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) of the Helmholtz Association.
Founded in 2012, ImmunoSensation2 is currently in its twelfth year of funding. We continue to pursue our mission of innovative science in immunology. Further, we link immunology to other systems, such as the metabolic system and the nervous system. Ultimately, we want to better understand the intimate connection between the immune sensory system and human health and disease.
"We understand the immune system as a sensory organ"
Otto-Westphal Thesis Prize for Jonas Schulte-Schrepping
—The German Society for Immunology e.V. (DGfI) anually honours one of its members by awarding the Otto-Westphal Thesis Prize. This year, Jonas Schulte-Schrepping from the research group of Prof. Joachim Schultze at the DZNE was selected for his PhD thesis on the systemic immune response to COVID-19. The prize is endowed with a prize money of 1,500 EUR.
—The German Society for Orthopaedic Rheumatology (DGORh) awards the Arthur Vick Prize annually. The award serves to promote research in the field of orthopaedic rheumatology. The prize is endowed with 7,000 euros.
—The formation of pores by a particular protein, gasdermin D, plays a key role in inflammatory reactions. During its activation, an inhibitory part is split off. More than 30 of the remaining protein fragments then combine to form large pores in the cell membrane, which allow the release of inflammatory messengers.
As methods for studying these processes in living cells have so far been inadequate, the sequence of oligomerization, pore formation and membrane incorporation has remained unclear until now.