Our research group is at the University Hospital Tübingen in the Department of Diabetology, Endocrinology, and Nephrology. We are affiliated with the M3 institute, the Institute of Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases (IDM), and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD).
We are studying the dynamic interactions between tissue resident immune cells, stromal cells, and microbes in metabolically relevant tissues that interface with the environment. We use an interdisciplinary approach combining the fields of immunology, diabetology, and microbiology to increase the understanding of tissue-immune crosstalk and factors that dictate metabolic health and disease, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). By integrating the abundant clinical resources of the University Hospital Tübingen, we aim to understand tissue immune cells in their local environment (niche), defined by specialized stromal cell subsets. For this, we pair advanced single-cell based techniques such as flow cytometric analysis and sorting with molecular techniques, including single-cell RNA sequencing and 3D volumetric imaging, allowing us to visualize and quantify complex immune and stromal cell topography in the context of metabolic diseases.
