Laboratory of Prof. Marta Rizzi, Freiburg and Vienna
Chiara Brand is joining our Freiburg Lab partly with a dual role of lab and administrative assistant, she will be supporting experiments and helping to handle bureaucratic tasks. Chiara is not new to Freiburg and B cells, she did her Master Thesis in Warnatz Lab and did an Internship at Novartis Basel with our friend Elisabetta Traggiai. Looking forward to working with you!
For two days we welcomed Medical Doctor and PhD candidates and Postdoc from Freiburg, Strasbourg and Basel to discuss Translational Immunology with focus on Tissue specific Immunity and Inborn Errors of Immunity. Spearheading the organization and scientific direction Rizzi Lab with Julian Staniek for Freiburg and Prof Anne Sophie Korganow, and Stephan Giorgiutt from the Uni Strasbourg.
Wonderful meeting!
The collaborative work between the Vincent Gies Lab, Anne-Sophie Korganow Lab and the RizziLab has been published in Nature Communication! We found the anti-phospholipid (APS) specific B cells, cloned them and characterized their antigen receptors. We found that APS specificity is already present in the naive compartment and fails to be eliminated during the germinal center reaction. Not only APS specific memory B cells show signs of affinity maturation and are found in the bone marrow plasma cell compartment! Large collaborative effort, a lot of great discussion and many, many analyzed clones! Kudos to Yannick Dieudonné and Raquel Lorenzetti for this great work! C’est magnifique!
The paper:
Dieudonné Y, Lorenzetti R, Rottura J, Janowska I, Frenger Q, Jacquel L, Vollmer O, Carbone F, Chengsong Z, Luka M, Depauw S, Wadier N, Giorgiutti S, Nespola B, Herb A, Voll RE, Guffroy A, Poindron V, Ménager M, Martin T, Soulas-Sprauel P, Rizzi M, Korganow AS, Gies V.
Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 15;15(1):9921. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54228-8.PMID: 39548093 Free PMC article.
We have a new Postdoc in the Vienna Lab! Michael Svaton, MD PhD, he was trained in the laboratories of Eva Fronkova in the Charles University of Prague, and followed by a Postdoc in Kaan Botzug laboratory at the St. Anna Children’s Hospital in Vienna. Michael has a great bioinformatics experience in genetics, BCR repertoire and single cells data analysis… We are looking forward to work with you!
We welcome our new Postdoc in the Freiburg Lab. Stefan Neys did his PhD in the laboratory of Rudi Hendriks at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. We are happy to have a real signalling expert in our group.
Franziska has received the prestigious publication award from the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology in Vienna during this year’s annual retreat. The award highlights Franzi’s exceptional research contributions and her dedication to advancing the field of immunology. This achievement is a testament to her hard work and the collaborative spirit of our team. Looking forward to her future progress in the lab!
What an honor to be a speaker of the Klaus Goerttler Session of the German Society for Cytometry (DGfZ)! Wonderful discussion and a great meeting! A special thank to the the president (and old friend) Hendrick Mei for the warm welcome, to my co-speaker Christian Busse and to Annika Betzler, Klaus Goerttler Awardee 2023 for chairing the session!
We got together to review all projects, discuss our data and plan the future work! Lots of positive energy and motivation out of these 3 days of science! Thanks to our invited guests Tomas Kalina (Charles University of Prague), Stefan Neys (Erasmus MC) and Michael Svaton (St. Anna Children’s Hospital) for their contribution!
We studied the B Cell Reconstitution Failure in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis: Our work provides critical insights into the reasons behind the frequent failure of B cell reconstitution in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) patients following B cell depletion therapy.
Congratulations to Dr. Julian Staniek! His work on the new function of FAS receptor in modulating B cell activation received this prestigious price from CIBSS!
We welcome Dr. Franziska Keller to the lab! It’s nice to have you back with us (we all remember the fun Master thesis time!). We are looking forward to your ideas, energy and organization!
The two cross-border projects will strengthen cooperation between Strasbourg and Freiburg.
→ Link to News on CIBSS-Website
Starting February, Claudia Chercoles from the University of Barcelona joined our lab to absolve her practical training and final thesis project in the frame the Erasmus exchange.
We look forward to introduce you to our favourite cells!
Why is B cell development disturbed in patients with FAS mutations (ALPS)? Find out the answer in our latest work!
You can find a free-access reprint-link to the paper on our Publications page.
We moved into the Center for Translational Cell Therapy building in March 2023. Now we finally celebrated together with our lovely new neighbours.
On October 20, 2023, Marta gave her inaugural lecture together with Prof. Christoph Bock and Prof. Andreas Bergthaler in a very festive setting at MedUni Vienna.
Marta’s long-standing director and mentor Prof. em. Hans-Hartmut Peter introduced her to the Viennese academic community.
More photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAZwqu
Photos © Robert Harson, MedUni Wien
We had the first Symposium of the Vienna B cell club! Elisabetta Traggia from Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research was our Surprise Speaker. We loved her beautiful story on peripheral B cell tolerance! Great presentations from PIs, PhD candidates and Postdocs from the Vienna community.
Celebrations are merrier if you share them! Together with Susana Minguet, we celebrated our Professorships in Freiburg. Great occasion to thank all the people that supported us over the years, and…ourselves!! Lots of fun and well deserved celebration for both of us!
Melanie de Gier from the university of Leiden will work in our Freiburg lab for the next 3 months! We will study Early B cell development and Stroma cell interaction… welcome Mel!
Marta Rizzi has taken on a Heisenberg professorship at the University of Freiburg on April 1, 2023 with a research focus on immunodeficiencies.