How the immune system fights old pathogens

We must not lose sight of the „old“ infectious agents, even if the Corona pandemic is currently in the focus of attention. Members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex and Staphylococcus aureus, for example, are daily claiming victims, and the antibiotic resistance crisis is aggravating the problem. These pathogens and their hosts have adapted very well to each other through co-evolution, and the immune system relies on numerous mechanisms to sense, interact and mostly maintain an equilibrium with the pathogens over long periods of time. Mostly – not always, unfortunately. These fascinating mechanisms and their role in health and disease are the topic of our joint presentation. Barbara M. Bröker is Professor and Head of the Institute of Immunology at University Medicine Greifswald, Germany. Having studied medicine and philosophy at the universities of Münster (Germany), Vienna (Austria) and Bristol (UK), Barbara Bröker moved to the University College and Middlesex Medical School in London (UK) as a postdoc to study autoimmune diseases and become an immunologist. She then joined a Max Planck Research Group in Erlangen and later the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg before moving to Greifswald in 2000. Anca Dorhoi is Director of the Institute of Immunology at the Friedrich-Loeffler- Institut (FLI), Greifswald-Isle of Riems, and Professor of Immunology at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Greifswald, Germany. She studied veterinary medicine in Cluj-Napoca (RO), specialized in infectious diseases also in Lisbon (PT) and moved to the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin (MPIIB) as a postdoc to study immunity to bacterial pathogens. Anca Dorhoi led a Minerva Group at the MPIIB before joining the FLI in 2017.