HCKH - PI Ulf Panzer - Hamburg Center for Kidney Health

Team

Ulf Panzer

Ulf Panzer

Mission Statement

“Improving the understanding of tissue-specific immunity in the kidney”

— Ulf Panzer, MD

Team Members

Post Doc

Nariaki Asada, MD

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Clinician Scientist

Jonas Engeßer, MD

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MD Student

Pauline Ginsberg

Technician

Anna Kaffke

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Post Doc

Hans-Joachim Paust, PhD

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Coordination

Anett Peters

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Clinician Scientist

Jan-Hendrik Riedel, MD

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MD Student

Lennart Robben

PhD/MD Student

Ning Song

PhD/MD Student

Hui-ying Wang

Julius Weiß

Post Doc

Yu Zhao, PhD

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Research

CD4⁺ T cells orchestrate the immune response and play a unique role in autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. The characterization of distinct cytokine producing CD4⁺ T cell subsets has advanced our current understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of organ-specific immunity greatly. Our group and others have shown that the recruitment of T_H17 and T_H1 cells as well as tissue resident memory T cells drives renal tissue damage in experimental and possibly human crescentic glomerulonephritis (GN). Despite these advances, the biological functions, regulation, and signaling pathways of the T cell- cytokine axis leading to organ injury remain to be fully understood.

To achieve this, we have the following goals: 1) nvestigation of the mechanisms and function of renal CD4⁺ T cell trafficking, in particular the molecular events controlling their retention or emigration from the kidney; 2) analyses of the type 1 and 3 cytokine family function, their receptors and their associated chemokines in immune-mediated renal diseases; and 3) perform a high-dimensional analysis of the CD4⁺ T cell immune response of crescentic GN patients using a systems immunology approach. In short, our studies will result in a better understanding of CD4⁺ T cell -cytokine network involvement in renal autoimmune diseases. These studies are essential to develop pathogenesis-based anti-cytokine treatment strategies.

Ulf Panzer, MD

Director of the Hamburg Center for Translational Immunology

III. Department of Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)
Martinistr. 52
20246 Hamburg, Germany

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CV

Current Position

W3 Professor at the III. Medizinische Klinik / Section Translational Immunology, UKE, Hamburg

Director of the Hamburg Center for Translational Immunology, UKE, Hamburg

University Training

1989 - 1996	Study of Medicine, University of Hamburg
1997 - 1999	Study of Molecular Biology, ZMNH, University of Hamburg

Academic qualifications

since 2020 - 2020	Director of the Hamburg Center for Translational Immunology
since 2010	W3 Professor at the III. Medizinische Klinik and chief of the Division Glomerulonephritis Research / Translational Immunology, UKE
2005 - 2010	Consultant, III. Medizinische Klinik, UKE
2003 - 2004	DFG Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona Switzerland
1996 - 2003	Assistant Physician at the III. Medizinische Klinik, UKE
1993 -1996	MD thesis, Medizinische Klinik, UKE

Selected awards and honors

2018 - 2020	Deputy Coordinator of the Else-Kröner Promotionskollegium ”iPRIME: innovative Promotionsförderung im Bereich translationale Entzündungsforschung“, UKE
2019	Coordinator of the Integrated Research Training Group ”Mechanisms of Immune Mediated Tissue Injury” of the SFB 1192
2016	Coordinator DFG Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1192 “Immune-Mediated Glomerular Diseases”
2014	'Franz-Volhard-Preis', German Society of Nephrology
2009 - 2016	Leader DFG Clinical Research Unit KFO 228 “Immunopathogenesis and Therapy of Glomerulonephritis”
2007	'Dr. Martini Preis' (award for the best research work published in 2006 at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf)

Selected publications

1.	CD4⁺ T cells produce GM-CSF and drive immune-mediated glomerular disease by licensing monocyte-derived cells to produce MMP12. Paust HJ, Song N, De Feo D, Asada N, Tuzlak S, Zhao Y, Riedel JH, Hellmig M, Sivayoganathan A, Peters A, Kaffke A, Borchers A, Wenzel UO, Steinmetz OM, Tiegs G, Meister E, Mack M, Kurts C, von Vietinghoff S, Lindenmeyer MT, Hoxha E, Stahl RAK, Huber TB, Bonn S, Meyer-Schwesinger C, Wiech T, Turner JE, Becher B, Krebs CF, Panzer U. Sci Transl Med. 2023 Mar 15;15(687):eadd6137.
2.	Clonal expansion and activation of tissue-resident memory-like Th17 cells expressing GM-CSF in the lungs of severe COVID-19 patients. Zhao Y, Kilian C, Turner JE, Bosurgi L, Roedl K, Bartsch P, Gnirck AC, Cortesi F, Schultheiß C, Hellmig M, Enk LUB, Hausmann F, Borchers A, Wong MN, Paust HJ, Siracusa F, Scheibel N, Herrmann M, Rosati E, Bacher P, Kylies D, Jarczak D, Lütgehetmann M, Pfefferle S, Steurer S, Zur-Wiesch JS, Puelles VG, Sperhake JP, Addo MM, Lohse AW, Binder M, Huber S, Huber TB, Kluge S, Bonn S, Panzer U, Gagliani N, Krebs CF. Sci Immunol*. 2021, 6(56):eabf6692.
3.	Pathogen-induced tissue-resident memory TH17 cells amplify autoimmune kidney disease. Krebs CF, Reimers D, Zhao Y, Paust HJ, Bartsch P, Nuñez S, Rosemblatt MV, Hellmig M, Kilian C, Borchers A, Enk LUB, Zinke M, Becker M, Schmid J, Klinge S, Wong MN, Puelles VG, Schmidt C, Bertram T, Stumpf N, Hoxha E, Meyer-Schwesinger C, Lindenmeyer MT, Cohen CD, Rink M, Kurts C, Franzenburg S, Koch-Nolte F, Turner JE, Riedel JH, Huber S, Gagliani N, Huber TB, Wiech T, Rohde H, Bono MR, Bonn S, Panzer U, Mittrücker HW. Sci Immunol. 2020, 5(50):eaba4163.
4.	Autoimmune Renal Disease Is Exacerbated by S1P-Receptor-1-Dependent Intestinal Th17 Cell Migration to the Kidney. Krebs CF, Paust HJ, Krohn S, Koyro T, Brix SR, Riedel JH, Bartsch P, Wiech T, Meyer-Schwesinger C, Huang J, Fischer N, Busch P, Mittrücker HW, Steinhoff U, Stockinger B, Perez LG, Wenzel UO, Janneck M, Steinmetz OM, Gagliani N, Stahl RAK, Huber S, Turner JE, Panzer U. Immunity. 2016, 45(5):1078-1092.
5.	The immune system and kidney disease: basic concepts and clinical implications. Kurts C, Panzer U, Anders HJ, Rees AJ. The immune system and kidney disease: basic concepts and clinical implications. Nat Rev Immunol. 2013, 13(10):738-53.
	* Represents equal contribution as co-first or co-senior authors.