Johannes U Mayer

Philipps-Universität Marburg, Junior Group Leader Department for Dermatology and Allergology

Dr. Johannes U Mayer recently joined the Department of Dermatology and Allergology at the Philipps University Marburg, Germany as a Junior Group leader. Previously, he was part of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in New Zealand, where he was working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the team of Prof. Franca Ronchese. He joined the Malaghan Institute in 2017 to examine the plasticity and molecular programming of antigen-presenting cells during homeostasis, inflammation, and infection of barrier tissues with a focus on type-2 immunity. Prior, he obtained his B.Sc. degree from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, and a M.Res. degree from the University of Glasgow, in UK, where he also obtained his PhD in Immunology based on his work on ‘The Induction of T helper 2 (Th2) cell responses against Schistosoma mansoni eggs in the murine intestine’. He has a strong interest in infectious diseases, the hygiene hypothesis and the tissue-specific control of immune responses with a focus on type-2 immunity and aims to develop new approaches to prevent or treat parasite infections and allergies.

Hong You

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia

Dr. You has devoted her research to the prevention and treatment of neglected tropical diseases including schistosomiasis and echinococcusis. Her research interests lie in the identification of novel vaccine or drug targets and the validation of therapeutic strategies for the prevention and treatment of those diseases. Those studies involve protective immunity against schistosomes, novel approaches to improve vaccine efficacy and the assessment of anti-helmintic drugs. Dr. You also recently expanded her research to schistosome transcriptomics associated with parasite-host interactions and the development of a stable platform for functional genomic studies by introducing the CRISPR-mediated editing system into helminth parasites.

Francesco Vacca

Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Wellington, New Zealand

Dr. Francesco Vacca Postdoctoral Research Fellow interested in the immunomodulation by helminth parasites. He pursued his B.Sc. in Biomedical Science at the University of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) and moved to Scotland to pursue his M.Sc. and Postdoctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK. During his PhD, he identified and characterized a protein secreted by the murine parasite Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri that interferes with the IL-33 pathway. He used this protein to modulate inflammatory responses in models of asthma, acute lung injury and viral infection. Currently, his research interests focus on exploring the immunomodulatory effect of the human hookworm Necator americanus at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Wellington, New Zealand.

Nicholas N Jarjour

University of Minnesota, Centre for Immunology, Twin Cities, USA

Dr. Jarjour is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Stephen Jameson in the Center for Immunology at the University of Minnesota, USA. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.Sc. in Biomedical Science from the Ohio State University, where he worked in the laboratories of Prof. John Gunn and Amy Lovett-Racke. He pursued his PhD at the University of Washington, in St. Louis with Prof. Brian Edelson, describing novel roles for the transcription factor Bhlhe40 in tissue immunity, with a special focus on type 2 responses and immunity to the gastrointestinal helminth Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri. Dr. Jarjour was the first author on one of several contemporary studies describing isolation of immune cells from helminth-infected intestines. Using this method, he described the transcriptional profile of lamina propria CD4+ T cells during helminth infection and revealed prominent secretion of GM-CSF as a key aspect of the helper T cell program in this context. His current work continues to explore tissue-resident immunity throughout the body, specifically the behavior of tissue-resident memory CD8+ T cells (TRMs), using bacterial, viral, parasite, and tumor models to assess the effect of inflammation on bystander TRM maintenance. Dr. Jarjour has been recognized with several awards including a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and a Beckman Scholarship.