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Immunologist from the Cluster of Excellence PMI receives prestigious European Research Council grant for work on regulatory T cells
The immune system protects the body against pathogens and potentially harmful substances. But it is also active in healthy individuals—it must constantly ensure that immune cells do not attack the body’s own structures but recognize and tolerate them as self. “The body has a kind of ‘guardians’ for this task—regulatory T cells—which protect the body’s own tissues from the immune system. This function is essential; without it, humans could not survive for long,” explains Professor Alexander Scheffold, Director of the Institute of Immunology at Kiel University (CAU) and the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel, and member of the Cluster of Excellence Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation (PMI).
Regulatory T cells fail in autoimmune diseases
In autoimmune diseases, this protective mechanism is partially impaired: immune cells mistakenly attack the body’s own tissues, leading to chronic inflammation and tissue destruction. In type 1 diabetes, for example, immune cells attack the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. “If we could manage to activate the specific regulatory T cells that normally prevent such misguided immune responses, this would offer a promising new therapeutic approach for various autoimmune diseases,” says Scheffold.
To advance this line of research, Scheffold has now been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. For his project “RespecTreg” (Resolve human autoantigen-specific regulatory T cell responses), he will receive €2.5 million in funding over the next five years. The ERC Advanced Grant is the most highly endowed individual research award of the European Union and is awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC supports outstanding researchers from all disciplines who have already produced internationally significant research results over a sustained period.
Kiel-developed method enables fundamental research
Immune cells possess receptors on their surface that allow them to recognize specific structures, known as antigens—originating from pathogens but also from the body itself. This recognition triggers immune responses, such as the activation of additional immune cells to fight off a pathogen. Regulatory T cells also have such receptors that recognize self-antigens. In his ERC-funded project, Scheffold aims to identify which self-antigens are recognized by these cells through their specific receptors.
The challenge: there are only very few cells of each specific type—that is, regulatory T cells that recognize a particular antigen—making them extremely difficult to study using conventional methods. To enable the study of these rare cells, Professor Alexander Scheffold and his colleague Professor Petra Bacher developed a technique known as Antigen-reactive T cell enrichment (ARTE).
Using this method, Scheffold and his team will select antigens from various organ systems and test which ones are recognized by regulatory T cells. The regulatory T cells used in the study are isolated from blood samples of healthy donors. “Preliminary studies suggest emerging patterns: there are structures in the body, such as those found in the thyroid gland and the pancreas, that elicit responses from particularly large numbers of regulatory T cells. Our hypothesis is that the immune system interacts more intensely with these structures. This may explain why autoimmune reactions occur more frequently in these areas and why the body requires stronger protective mechanisms there,” Scheffold explains.
This hypothesis will now be tested in the funded project. “We want to identify which self-antigens are recognized by regulatory T cells—and which are not. We also aim to gain a deeper understanding of this fundamental principle of regulatory T cell function.” Building on this knowledge, it may be possible to develop vaccines or antigen-specific immunotherapies for a wide range of immune-related diseases.
Photos are available to download:
https://www.precisionmedicine.de/de/pressemitteilungen/pressebilder-2025/10_Sche...
Professor Alexander Scheffold receives an ERC Advanced Grant. Scheffold is a member of the Cluster of Excellence PMI and Director of the Institute of Immunology at Kiel University (CAU) and the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel.
© S. Klahn / Cluster of Excellence PMI
The Cluster of Excellence "Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation" (PMI) is being funded from 2019 to 2025 through the German Excellence Strategy (ExStra). It succeeds the "Inflammation at Interfaces” Cluster, which was already funded in two periods of the Excellence Initiative (2007-2018). Around 400 members from eight institutions at four locations are involved: Kiel (Kiel University, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN)), Lübeck (University of Lübeck, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH)), Plön (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology) and Borstel (Research Center Borstel - Leibniz Lung Center).
The goal is to translate interdisciplinary research findings on chronic inflammatory diseases of barrier organs to healthcare more intensively, as well as to fulfill previously unsatisfied needs of the patients. Three points are important in the context of successful treatment, and are therefore at the heart of PMI research: the early detection of chronic inflammatory diseases, the prediction of disease progression and complications, and the prediction of individual responses to treatment.
Cluster of Excellence "Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation"
Postal address: Christian-Albrechts-Platz 4, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Contact: Sonja Petermann
Tel.: +49 (0)431 880-4850, Fax: +49 (0)431 880-4894
E-mail: spetermann@uv.uni-kiel.de
X: PMI @medinflame
Press contact:
Frederike Buhse
Tel.: +49 (0)431/880 4682, E-mail: fbuhse@uv.uni-kiel.de
https://precisionmedicine.de
https://www.precisionmedicine.de/en/details/news/erc-advanced-grant-for-alexande...
Prof. Dr. Alexander Scheffold
Institute of Immunology
Kiel University and University Medical Center, UKSH, Campus Kiel
Medical Faculty
Phone.: +49 431 500-31000
Email: Alexander.Scheffold@uksh.de
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