Functional specialization of human and mouse mononuclear phagocytes during health and disease

The population of mononuclear phagocytes consists of Dendritic cells, Monocytes and Macrophages. All three of these populations are critical components of the immune system, crucial for the induction, maintenance and control of immune reactions.

Recently characterization of the detailed developmental mechanisms of the functional diversification of Dendritic cells was enabled by cutting edge technologies such as single cell mRNA sequencing, CyTof and advanced flow cytometry, coupled with in vivo Transfer approaches. However, despite being on of the biggest populations of mononuclear phagocytes, the functional differentiation and diversification of monocytes is poorly understood.

Our group investigates, how and where functional diversification of Monocytes is enforced and regulated on a transcriptional and functional level, using state of the art technologies, such as single cell mRNA sequencing and advanced flow cytometry to draw, for the first time, a global picture of myeloid cell development of functional diversification to better understand the functional diversity of this crucial immune cell compartment better, during health and disease.