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

Dr. Mir-Farzin Mashreghi is the Deputy Scientific Director at the German Rheumatology Research Center (DRFZ) and leads the “Systems Rheumatology” program. He obtained his Ph.D. from Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin focusing on transplantation immunology. Dr. Mashreghi’s current research deals with the regulation and differentiation of T helper cells, memory B cells, and plasma cells. His work employs single-cell sequencing to elucidate immune cell heterogeneity and their roles in chronic inflammatory diseases. His significant publications include studies on microRNAs in T cell regulation and adaptive immune responses after vaccination and in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Masato Kubo received a Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo School of Medicine (Dr. Tomio Tada’s Laboratory) in 1991. He joined Dr. Bernhard Cinader’s Laboratory at Toronto University as a Research Fellow (1987-1989), and moved to Joun Ransam’s Laboratory in The Department of Molecular Immunology, Syntex Discovery Research, Palo Alto, and Syntex Discovery Research, Niihari Research Center, as a Postdoctoral Fellow (1991-1993) and a researcher (1993-1995). After this, he joined the Research Institute for Biological Sciences (RIBS), Tokyo University of Science (TUS), and started his own Laboratory as an Associate Professor (1995-2004). He had the opportunity to join RIKEN Research,

Center for Allergy and Immunology (RCAI) and ran his research team, Laboratory for Signal Network (2003-2011). In 2009, he joined RIBS, TUS as a Professor and directed the Division of Molecular Pathology. In 2013, he also joined the Center for Integrated Medical Science (IMS), RIKEN Yokohama, as Laboratory head of the Laboratory for cytokine regulation. His research interest is the cytokine regulation of helper T cells during infectious immunity and allergic responses. Throughout his research, he focuses on two cytokines that share the same receptor, IL-4Ra, IL-4, and IL-13, and these two cytokines are independently regulated in distinct immune cell lineages. More recently, his group indicated that these two cytokines independently control humoral immunity in allergic responses