The Translational Research Unit – Infectious Diseases (TRU-ID) within the Division for Clinical Infectious Diseases conducts research aimed at improving our immunological understanding of infectious diseases. Our ultimate goal is to develop innovative therapies for serious bacterial, fungal or viral infections. With the support of our close network of partners at the University of Cologne, as well as our national and international collaborators, we are working to advance these innovative therapeutic concepts towards clinical application. Our studies are funded by the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the European Union, among others.
Our laboratory investigates molecular and cellular mechanisms of infectious diseases with a strong focus on host–pathogen interactions, trained innate immunity, tuberculosis, and vaccine-induced immune responses. To address these questions, we generate and analyze a wide spectrum of multi-omics datasets, including bulk & single cell RNA sequencing, proteomics and phospho-proteomics and epigenomic profiling. In particular, the project will examine longitudinal immune phenotyping data from a multicentric study of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (mEX TB). The successful candidate will develop and apply computational strategies to integrate and interpret these datasets, contributing to systems-level understanding of immune regulation in infectious diseases.
