The FemmunityX research team is an international-oriented team devoted to expanding the knowledge on female immunity and unravel the spectrum of immune sex differences.

The female and the male immune systems vastly diverge, presenting discrete innate and adaptive cellular phenotypes that differently stir infection and disease susceptibility, manifestation and course in the two sexes. While some immune sex differences are present throughout the life course, others are present only at certain reproductive stages, highlighting the important role of sex hormones. This immunological-endocrine interaction is not constant, as both the endocrine and immune systems reshape in metabolic compromised states, such as obesity, insulin resistance (IR) and varying dietary patterns.

We hypothesize that this results in a dynamic range for immune-sex differences that has been so far overlooked.

Our main goal is to explore how endocrine and metabolic changes shape the cellular and functional phenotype of the immune system in females, and to what extent do they contribute to a dynamic range in immune sex differences?

Our methodological approaches build on the solid knowledge and expertise of our department in the immune and metabolic systems, and apply it to the study of immune sex differences with a specific focus on the overlooked female immune system.

We are currently working on several population cohorts, collected with collaborators in Tanzania and locally in Bonn, study different levels of information including transcriptome, metabolome and proteome and apply bioinformatics to characterize the diversity of the female immune-metabolic systems.

⭐⭐⭐We are happy to host immune and metabolic enthusiastic students for lab rotations, M.Sc. thesis, internships and more! For more information, contact talpecht@uni-bonn.de⭐⭐⭐