The Immune Alliance - a German-Japanese Cooperation in Immunology Bilateral Cooperation

Friederike Berberich-Siebelt, married and two children (*1991 and 1997), studied Biology in at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, but half a year at the Tokyo Daigaku in Japan. After her dissertation on the regulation of c-myc in T cells with Eberhard Wecker and Anneliese Schimpl, she performed her first postdoc with Edward A. Clark on CD40 and IgM signaling in B cells at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, Primate Center. She returned to signal transduction in T cells for her second postdoc with Edgar Serfling in Würzburg. At least for teaching, she went abroad again, i.e. several times for a week of Immunology class in Hangzhou, China. Finally, she was awarded the venia legendi when she habilitated in 2015 and became an affiliated professor in 2023.

Her research group Molecular and cellular immunology at the Institute of Pathology, University of Würzburg, has a special interest in T-conventional and T-regulatory cells. Here, focus lies on the expression pattern and activation as well as signal transduction of the transcription factor family ‘NFAT’. Research deals with the role of individual family members, their isoforms, and the influence of modifications, especially by sumoylation, as well as the interplay with other transcription (co-) factors. Besides molecular analyses, these questions are addressed with the help of transgenic mice or CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing in several preclinical mouse models (immunizations, EAE, colitis, GvHD/GvL). Recent efforts include translational aspects by characterizing samples from healthy human donors and patients.

Hisashi Arase earned his MD (1990) and PhD (1994) from Hokkaido University. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Chiba University School of Medicine (1994-2000), followed by a Visiting Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (2000-2002). Returning to Japan, he became an Associate Professor at Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine (2002-2004) before joining the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases at Osaka University. He was promoted to Professor there in 2006, and in 2007, he also became a Professor at the WPI Immunology Frontier Research Center at Osaka University. His research has unveiled a new mechanism governing T cell recognition of self-antigens, a discovery with significant implications for understanding and potentially treating autoimmune disorders.