Severely injured patients and patients with sepsis (systemic infection) are at increased risk to develop life-threatening nosocomial infections and chronic organ dysfunction. Despite adequate antibacterial and organ-supporting therapy morbidity and mortality are high. The origin of these detrimental consequences of injury and infection is ascribed to a dysregulated response of the immune system to damaged tissue and to pathogens. However, the underlying mechanisms are still incompletely understood. The aim of our research is to improve the understanding of the processes that are responsible for the impaired immune defense in these patients in order to identify novel therapeutic targets.

Dendritic cells (DCs) and Natural Killer (NK) cells are part of the innate immune system and play a major role in the defense against bacterial infection. We have previously shown a disturbed function of DC and NK cells after major injury and during sepsis that interferes with the efficient host response to infection. Currently, our main focus is to decipher the pathomechanisms underlying the dysfunction of DCs and NK cells after severe injury and during sepsis with special interest in cell differentiation and metabolism using patient samples and diverse in vitro and in vivo models.

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