General Objectives of the Institute of Molecular Immunology
The immune system is a defense system to protect the organism against intruding exogenous agents and endogenous insults (mutations, oncogenic transformation). It plays an important role in allergies, autoimmune diseases, graft rejection or cancer,. While allergies and autoimmune diseases are caused by unwarranted or overshooting immune responses, in most malignant diseases a specific response against tumor cells is suppressed. Although tumor cells have antigens which can be detected as foreign by immune effector cells, the malignant cells manage to escape this immune response in different ways. In view of the poor prognosis of many tumor diseases, further research in this field is urgently needed to turn the stimulation of immune response into a therapeutic option for tumor patients.
The Institute performs application-oriented basic research at the interface of immunology, oncology and molecular biology. On the one hand, we seek a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which malignant cells escape immune control. On the other hand, these new insights provide the basis for developing new strategies for the targeted modulation of the immune system. Thus, results of experimental basic research are directly transferred into clinical protocols, and clinical observations with patients give rise to new questions to be answered with basic research. The Institute’s methodological spectrum encompasses immunological, cell biological and molecular biological in vitro systems, pre-clinical in vivo models and patient studies. To realize this concept, the Institute works closely with the Munich university hospitals.
The work of the Institute centers on urologic and hematopoietic neoplasms, specifically renal and prostate cancer, as well as leukemias and lymphomas. Using immunotherapy and gene therapy strategies, we seek to manipulate the immune system to induce anti-tumor immune responses. The concept of gene therapy is based on genetic modification of tumor cells which are administered to patients as cellular vaccines. For the production of such vaccine cells, a GMP-unit affiliated with the Institute was established. In order to monitor the immunological response following therapeutic immunization of the patients, innovative diagnostic methods are continually being developed.
Besides its research activities, the Institute participates in the training of students. Several staff members of the Institute are also members of the medical or biological faculties of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) and Technische Universität München and are integrated into the teaching programs of these faculties. The Institute is authorized to provide training for post-graduate immunologists.