Dear visitor,
thank you for visiting our homepage! At the center of our interest are effects of various external factors on the human immune system. We are constantly subjected to a multitude of natural environmental stimuli (bacteria, viruses, fungal spores, allergens, etc.), but anthropogenic factors are present as well (fine dust, nanoparticles, exhaust gas, etc.). The boom in nanotechnology within the the past two decades has created safety as well as sustainability issues, but “nano” nevertheless holds great promises for deep technology and groundbreaking applications, including medical ones. Thus, the field of nanomedicine has been evolving steadily. Meanwhile, nanotechnologies have merged into developing advanced materials, which is currently being recognized at the EU level within the  Advanced Materials Initiative 2030, where this group actively contributes to by further developing and implementing the  Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) Framework, which has been proposed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, in different  Material Innovation Markets.

Against this background, investigations into bio-nano interactions has become our overarching research area with studies into the molecular mechanisms of immune responses to engineered nanomaterials, nanomedical carriers and pharmaceuticals, or environmental agents such as allergens and microbials (viruses and bacteria). We focus on nano and advanced materials safety and sustainability, interactions between inhaled or ingested nano-sized objects and immune responses in the lung or gut as well systemic modifications upon diseased states, and education and training in this area.

This group is part of the doctoral school DSP Biomolecules in Health and Disease.