Welcome to the Kiermaier lab!

Our group focuses on the contribution of the cytoskeleton during innate and adaptive immune responses. Dendritic cells (DCs) represent the most potent antigen presenting cells of the innate immune system. They are key mediators for the induction of protective immunity as well as maintenance of self-tolerance. As such, DCs represent an outstanding population of cells, which mediate three fundamentally important tasks: antigen capture and presentation, migration towards secondary lymphoid organs and T cell activation.

Our group studies how cytoskeletal components, in particular centrosomes and microtubules, impact immune cell effector functions such as antigen presentation and migration and their behavior upon lymphocyte cell-cell interactions. To tackle these questions, we use cell-based in vitro reconstitution assays as well as studies in living tissues in combination with advanced imaging and genome editing techniques.