News
2025
06.01.2025
On 30.01.2025, Geraldine will be presenting our work at the “CAIMed Meet-up AI Powered Approaches in Infection Research” @ at TWINCORE, Zentrum für Experimentelle und Klinische Infektionsforschung GmbH.
01.01.2025
Happy new year from the Nouailles lab!
2024
31.12.2024
What a fabulous way to end the year! Congartulations to Facuo and Bastian in having your publication accepted in Mucosal Immunology and many thanks that we could participate in your research. You can read the article here: Diabetes impairs IFNγ-dependent antibacterial defense in the lungs
20.12.2024
Excellent news just before the holidays. Congratulations to our longstanding partners at IMISE University of Leipzig, Sybille Schirm, Markus Scholz and team who, based on our experimental data in animal models, developed a mathematical model of COVID-19 in hamsters. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports, which you can read through here: A biomathematical model of SARS-CoV-2 in Syrian hamsters
16.12.2024
Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it. Also, thanks to Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, we had a lot of fun at the Charité Christmas market!
13.12.2024
It is done! PD Dr. Geraldine Nouailles-Kursar thanks you for your attendance. Special appreciation to all my non-scientist friends who showed up and my team for the organization of the party. I hope you enjoyed the show.
05.12.2024
The Sonnenfeld Stiftung turned 50 years old and invited us to celebrate with them! We enjoyed delightful conversations, inspiring talks and excellent food. Many thanks for this evening and the financial support of our projects over the last years.
01.12.2024
Welcome to the group Niall Hardiman! Niall has joined our group as a PhD student to work on the SFB1449 project. Looking forward to the next couple of years with you in the team!
29.11.2024
We waited for this day since his successful defense in summer. Peter has received his doctoral certificate in the Charité ceremony and is now officially Dr. Peter Pennitz. Congratulations again, Dr. Pennitz!
28.11.2024
Our manuscript at AJRCMB is out in the print version and we are delighted that it was covered in an editorial! Additionally, our paper was featured as a highlight in the Red Alert section! We are so grateful for the appreciation of our research. Below you can find the links for the manuscript, editorial and Red Alert
Manuscript: https://doi.org/10.1165/rcmb.2024-0003OC
Editorial: https://doi.org/10.1165/rcmb.2024-0306ED
Red Alert: https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1165/rcmb.71i6RedAlert
26.11.2024
We have a new preprint for you to check out!
In this research project, we are investigating chemokine CXCL5 and the role it plays in acute lung infections. CXCL5 is relevant because it is made by both mice and humans, as opposed to CXCL8 (or IL-8).
It is produced locally by epithelial cells specifically at the site of infection and is well known that CXCL5 recruits neutrophils by acting on the corresponding receptor, CXCR2.
What is new in our findings: CXCL5 has a second, rather detrimental function in acute lung injury; it increases the permeability of the lung barrier.
Why would neutrophils and lung barrier permeability be a problem in pneumococcal pneumonia? Neutrophils are highly inflammatory cells that efficiently kill Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is good. But since we have antibiotics to do this job, this beneficial side of the neutrophils may become redundant, and the detrimental side — the inflammatory one — remains and causes damage to our lung tissue. The lung barrier, in this regard, is essential to maintain normal lung function and physiology, keeping us alive.
Due to its localized production and simultaneous detrimental effects, CXCL5 offers to be an excellent therapeutic target. Combining CXCL5 inhibition with antibiotics could offer a promising approach to treating acute bacterial lung infections while preserving lung barrier function.
25.11.2024
The best news ever! The DFG extended our CRC 1449 / SFB 1449 for another funding period!
Many thanks to our speakers Prof. Haag and Prof. Mall for the outstanding leadership. Looking forward to deep diving into the sugarverse with our project partners Prof. Pagel and team starting 2025.
https://www.dfg.de/de/service/presse/pressemitteilungen/2024/pressemitteilung-nr-47
22.11.2024
From Cologne to Freiburg to meet the team at the Joint DGP/DZL Academy Lung Science Meeting. Very proud of Chantal and Peter who gave excellent talks, as usual!
20.11.2024
Geraldine was in Cologne for the 4th Infect-Net Networking Meeting! Many thanks for the opportunity to meet all these brilliant women and join a workshop on media training by Henning Quanz
18.11.2024
You’re Invited!
We are thrilled to invite you to Geraldine’s inaugural lecture as part of her habilitation celebration. Join us as she officially receives her certificate and shares insights in her lecture.
📅 Date: Friday, December 13th, 2024
🕒 Time: 5 pm
📍 Location: Charité Campus Mitte
Following the lecture, we’ll celebrate with drinks and snacks at the reception. Don’t miss this special occasion — we look forward to seeing you there!
To help us plan for space and catering, please let us know if you’ll attend by emailing Geraldine.
15-17.10.2024
Cengiz attended the Practical Course on GC-MS-based Metabolomics, organized by the BIH Metabolomics Platform. He was intrigued by the applicability of metabolomics in lung infections! We would like to thank the team at the BIH Metabolomics Platform for the fantastic organization of this important workshop!
14.10.2024
We are delighted to announce that Geraldine has successfully completed her habilitation process! For those interested, her published habilitation thesis can be accessed here.
In December, we look forward to celebrating with her as she receives her certificate during her inaugural lecture. Stay tuned for the date announcement!
01.10.2024
The first authors in our recent EBioMedicine paper (Vincent and Peter) are not only brilliant scientists, but also artists! We are very pleased that our paper is featured as the cover story of the October issue, volume 108! If you are interested in finding out how AI can help bridge the gap between data derived from animals and humans, have a read through our paper
25.09.2024
Our paper titled “Neural network-assisted humanisation of COVID-19 hamster transcriptomic data reveals matching severity states in human disease” has received coverage in the press, which you can find in the links below:
12.09.2024
Karen presented recent developments of the human alveolus-on-a-chip model at the Si-Mposium 2024, which was a meeting aimed at developing human models and innovative bioanalytical processes to simulate organ functions
07-11.09.2024
In addition to presenting our work at the ERS Congress, we also had a great time enjoying Austrian food and the lovely city of Vienna!
04.09.2024
Our paper titled: “Neural network-assisted humanisation of COVID-19 hamster transcriptomic data reveals matching severity states in human disease” was featured in a comment by Dres. Lu, Ye and Yuan, which you can read here
27.08.2024
Our manuscript titled “Enzymatic Modulation of the Pulmonary Glycocalyx Enhances Susceptibility to Streptococcus pneumoniae” is now online!
In this study, we discovered that the pulmonary glycocalyx, a sugar rich coat on epithelial cells containing glycosaminoglycans such as heparan sulfate and hyaluronan, is protective against Streptococcus pneumoniae infection.
In summary, we demonstrated that intact glycosaminoglycans reduce pulmonary and systemic inflammation during pneumococcal pneumonia, while heparan sulfate regulates lung barrier function. This was also corroborated in human primary alveolar epithelial cells using in vitro biophysical techniques and human alveolus-on-a-chip platforms.
16.08.2024
Congratulations to Peter and Vincent for having their paper titled “Neural Network-Assisted Humanization of COVID-19 Hamster Transcriptomic 1 Data Reveals Matching Severity States in Human Disease” accepted for publication in eBioMedicine! Many thanks to the research team at University of Leipzig for this collaboration and the conclusion of this important study!
05.08.2024
The 2. International Symposium of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1449 – Dynamic Hydrogels at Biointerfaces – will take place at the Freie Universität Berlin on 01-02 October 2024! Cengiz will be presenting his work on glycosaminoglycans and fucosylated terminal glycans amongst highly distinguished international speakers. The program is packed with fascinating insights on mucins, mucin glycans, synthetic hydrogels and many more! Participation is free of charge amid a registration deadline of 31.08.2024, see you there!
01.08.2024
Cengiz, Peter, Geraldine and Karen will be presenting their work in this year’s European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Vienna (7-11 September)! If you happen to be there and would like to check out any of our talks (Karen) or posters (Cengiz, Peter, Geraldine), don’t hesitate to say hello!
22.07.2024
Congratulations to Cengiz and Kerstin for having their paper titled “Enzymatic Modulation of the Pulmonary Glycocalyx Enhances Susceptibility to Streptococcus pneumoniae” accepted for publication in Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol! Many thanks to our precious collaborators within SFB1449 and FU Berlin for their invaluable contributions to this study!
10.07.2024
A big congratulations to Ivo Röwekamp for successfully defending his doctoral thesis! We wish you all the best in your bright future!
04.07.2024
A big congratulations to Peter for very successfully defending his doctoral thesis! He received a very well deserved summa cum laude! We wish you many more successes in your scientific and medical journey!
17.06 – 20.06.2024
Geraldine gave a talk at the MUCINS IN HEALTH & DISEASE (17TH INTERNATIONAL MEETING) conference in Gothenburg, Sweden!
She loved this conference so much that next time she will drag the whole sugar team there. And primarily for the great science and people, not the fantastic party location. But have a look at the whale!
10.06.2024
Check out our newest COVID-19 manuscript in Cell Reports!
Using single-cell RNA sequencing, we studied disease progression in infected Syrian (moderate COVID-19) and Roborovski (severe COVID-19) hamsters. Our findings reveal a shared inflammatory axis in humans and hamsters, dominated by macrophages, neutrophils and endothelial cells. Syrian hamsters show transient inflammation, while Roborovski hamsters exhibit terminal inflammation and a type 1 vs. type 3 immunity bias may determine disease severity.
05.06 – 07.06.2024
Cengiz, Karen, Peter and Geraldine are attending the DZL Annual Meeting in Bad Nauheim. Don’t miss our teaser presentations and posters on Thursday!
02.06 – 05.06.2024
“Phage master” Chantal Weissfuss is representing Nouailles lab and exploring local culture at the 7th Joint Microbiology & Infection Conference of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM) and the Association of General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) in Würzburg. Don’t miss her oral presentation on “Combining a phage cocktail with antibiotics improves recovery from Pseudomonas-induced VAP in mice” on Monday!
23.05.2024
Congratulations to Laura, Ivo, Anne and Bastian! We are grateful that we could contribute to your article: “IL-33 controls IL-22-dependent antibacterial defense by modulating the microbiota” published in PNAS!
29.04.2024
Geraldine is off to Ghent in Belgium to attend the “Computational Cytometry Summer School” organized by VIB and the SaesysLab (link: https://saeyslab.sites.vib.be/en) and delve deep into R (or maybe fries?!).
15.04.2024
Congratulations to our dear friend and colleague Dr. med. Markus Brack.
22.03.2024
From left to right, Nouailles Lab scientists Peter Pennitz, Chantal Weissfuss and Sebastian Schickinger rocking the DGP in Mannheim.
06.03.2024
With happy hearts and heads full of new ideas, we return from the 27. Symposium: “Infection and Immune Defense“ of the DGfI and DGHM Study Group Infection Immunology, 04.03.2024 – 06.03.2024 at Burg Rothenfels. Seeing our amazing colleagues and friends in person and hearing about their science was truly inspiring. Cengiz and Geraldine.
04.03.2024
PhD students Chantal Weissfuss (Nouailles Lab) and Lena Bürckle (Witzenrath Lab) did an excellent job in representing the MAPVAP Consortium at the Final Review Meeting of French-German projects on AMR near Cologne. Thank you so much, we are extremely proud to have you in the team.
20.02.2024
Congratulations to former colleagues from the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Natalie Nieuwenhuizen (now University of Würzburg) and Stefan Kaufmann. It was a pleasure working with you again.
02.02.2024
Congratulations to Julia and Jakob for their newest work on the intranasal COVID-19 vaccine!
25.01.2024
Congratulations to Katharina Clausnitzer for successfully defending her Master’s thesis following her work with our group! It was a pleasure having you and we wish you all the best in your future!
11.01.2024
You may find our newest pre-print using artificial intelligence to compare the transcriptomes of COVID-19 patients and hamster models.
10.01.2024
Congratulations to our collaborators from the CRC1449 (project B01) for publishing the characterization of commercially available human primary alveolar epithelial cells! We are happy that we could contribute to this valuable publication.
03.01.2024
We are proud to submit a pre-print from our CRC1449 B02 project on the role of the alveolar epithelial glycocalyx during infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Firstly, congratulations to Kerstin and Cengiz for their first author contribution and dedication during the undertaking of this highly relevant research project!
And last but not least, many thanks to our CRC1449 collaborators from project C03 (Kevin, Karen and Andreas) and B01 (Matthias, Elena and Vladimir).
2023
15.12.2023
Thank you to Lisa Pfeiffer for having chosen us to do her Bachelor’s thesis! You were a great contribution to our group and we wish you all the best for your future!
03.12.2023
At the end of a hard year’s work, it was time to enjoy some cookies to celebrate success and happiness!
09.-13.09.2023
We thoroughly enjoyed attending and presenting our work at the ERS International Congress in Milan, which was filled with exciting research projects and speakers! The aperitivo was also excellent!
01.08.2023
Thank you to Kerstin Linke for your valuable contribution to the CRC1449 projects! Looking forward to reading your thesis and wish you all the best in your next chapter!
19.06.2023
Congratulations to our collaborators from the CRC1449 (project B01) for their new publication describing the alveolar epithelial glycocalyx using cutting edge electron microscopy! We are happy that we could contribute to this valuable research.
03.04.2023
Geraldine, Peter and Cengiz are delighted to announce that the cutting edge, collaborative study comparing vaccine-elicited immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants in hamster models is finally published in Nature Microbiology! Many thanks to our key co-operators Julia, Dusan, Emanuel and Jakob at the MDC and FU Berlin! Always a delight working with you! The study evaluates the efficacy of a live-attenuated nasal vaccine, sCPD9, developed by the FU Berlin, in comparison to currently available COVID-19 vaccines including the mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 and the adenovirus-vectored spike vaccine Ad2-spike in hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2. The findings highlight the extensive mucosal and systemic immunity elicited by the live-attenuated nasal vaccine sCPD9, which results in superior protection of the host compared to other vaccination strategies, following SARS-CoV-2 infection. We hope that this work will pave the way for further investigations of nasal live-attenuated vaccines and the advantages conferred by evoking strong localized and mucosal immunity!
Nouailles, G. et al. (2023). Live-attenuated vaccine sCPD9 elicits superior mucosal and systemic immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants in hamsters. Nature Microbiology.
31.03.2023
It is with a heavy heart that we say farewell to Romina, but we are also delighted to be able to call her our alumni and wish her a very successful future in her new chapter! All the very best Romina!
30.03.2023
The team enjoyed presenting their projects at the DGP Congress in Düsseldorf! Thank you to Peter, Romina and Lisa for the valuable representation of our group.
28.03.2023
Safe travels to Peter, Lisa and Romina who are on their way to the 63rd DGP Congress in Düsseldorf! Peter will give a talk on “Interspecies analysis to dissect cellular transcriptomic signatures of humans and hamsters in COVID-19”, Romina on “Experimental investigation of adjuvant therapies in severe pneumonia and ventilation”, while Lisa will present her poster titled “Approaching xeno-free cultivation and utilization of pulmonary pathogens in vitro”
24.03.2023
It was a great pleasure to attend the 26th Symposium “Infection and Immune Defense” of the DGfI and DGHM Study Group Infection Immunology at Burg Rothenfels! We gained a lot of insight into the impressive research conducted by all working groups in the field of infection immunology. Many thanks to Prof. Anca Dorhoi for the organization!
21.03.2023
Congratulations to Cengiz for having his work describing the role of microRNA-223 in pneumococcal pneumonia published! The scope of this study describes the implications of RNA interference in regulating the murine neutrophil transcriptome, whilst also highlighting the correlation of serum microRNA-223 expression and pneumococcal disease severity in a human cohort. We hope that this work will pave the way to elaborate further on the molecular mechanisms involved in immune cell effector functions during pneumococcal pneumonia, while also helping advance novel treatment options for severe lung infections!
29.01.2023
Congratulations to Chantal for having her work describing the immunogenicity and tolerability of repetitive bacteriophage treatment published! A special praise for her very first First Author publication, which required hard work and dedication that makes us very proud! This work will allow us to elaborate our investigations regarding the use of bacteriophages as therapeutics in bacterial lung infection models in the near future!
18.01.2023
Welcome to our new lab member, Katharina Clausnitzer! Happy to have you on board. Katharina will join forces with Chantal to investigate the potential of phages as therapeutics against respiratory diseases.
2022
20.12.2022
Congratulations to Peter and Cengiz for their collaborative work in describing how to dissociate and process healthy and diseased lung tissue for single-cell transcriptome analysis!
12.12.2022
One cannot visit the X-mas market too often. Thank you for the wonderful ride through 2022 and enjoy your holidays.
01.12.2022
Thanks to Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, we enjoyed the X-mas market.
27.10.2022
Scientist night out! We spent a lovely evening together and sweated from hot pot instead of pipetting!
24.10.2022
Hip-Hip-Hooray to Karen Hoffmann for being granted the Charité 3R Young Investigator Award!
15.09.2022
Congratulations to Aina Lask, Birgitt Gutbier and Martin Witzenrath for their latest publication. Happy we could contribute to your research. Read here to learn more about the potential of Vasculotide as an adjunctive therapy to antibiotics in bacterial pneumonia.
25.08.2022
We are back at work, energized and inspired after a 3-day internal retreat of basic and clinical research teams within Martin Witzenrath’s Department of Infectious Diseases and Respiratory Medicine. It was a fantastic opportunity for grouped scientific discussions and bonding exercises, including extracurricular activities, competitions, dancing and great food.
03.08.2022
We are happy to have contributed to the study of our cooperation partners at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, where we describe vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory pathology in COVID-19 hamsters after TH2-biased immunization.
03.08.2022
Congratulations to our cooperation partners Sybille Schirm and Markus Scholz for their excellent work in devising a biomathematical model of atherosclerosis in mice. This work has significant implications for the framework of the e:Med research and funding concept SYMPATH.
Schirm, S. et al. (2022). A biomathematical model of atherosclerosis in mice. PloS one 17.
01.08.2022
Welcome to our new lab member Karen Hoffmann! We are excited to have on board her knowledge and expertise on novel organotypic human lung models for studying bacterial infections.
27.07.2022
Congratulations to Peter Pennitz, our Leipzig collaborator Holger Kirsten and of course the rest of the dream team for publishing work on the cross-species comparison of single-cell transcriptomes from human (Homo sapiens), African green monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus), pig (Sus domesticus), hamster (Mesocricetus auratus), rat (Rattus norvegicus) and mouse (Mus musculus) lung cells!
By employing techniques such as RNA velocity and intercellular communication based on ligand-receptor co-expression, we have demonstrated a workflow for interspecies data integration, applied a single unified gene nomenclature, performed cell-specific clustering and identified marker genes for each species.
02.07.2022
The Berlin hamster consortium has made an important step towards better transcriptional evaluation of COVID-19 disease, thanks to their successful genome annotation of the Roborovski Dwarf Hamster; an animal model for severe/critical COVID-19. Special compliments to Sandro Andreotti and Emanuel Wyler!
You find a detailed description about the methodology on GitHub.
25.05.2022
We are delighted that the pre-print of our recent COVID-19 study titled „A live attenuated vaccine confers superior mucosal and systemic immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants“ has attracted widespread attention in various public media outlets. We hope to continue engaging with and communicating our scientific findings to the general public. Below you can find some of the press releases relating to our study:
berliner-zeitung.de, tagesspiegel.de, zeit.de, pharmazeutische-zeitung.de, spektrum.de, deutschlandfunk.de, news-medical.net, mdr.de, blick.ch, faz.net
24.05.2022
The preprint of our COVID-19 study titled „A live attenuated vaccine confers superior mucosal and systemic immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants“ is now available here. Many thanks to our collaboration partners at Freie Universität Berlin, BIMSB, MDC and BIH to help spearhead this major contribution to the field of vaccine research.
13.04.2022
Together with our collaborators at the MDC and FU Berlin, we describe the effectiveness of a combination therapy involving anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies and dexamethasone for treatment of COVID-19 in two distinct hamster models. Using single-cell transcriptomics, we identified a subpopulation of neutrophils responsive to dexamethasone treatment and characterized the synergistic anti-viral effects of monoclonal antibody and dexamethasone combination therapy.
You find the press release at the Charité-Website.
01.02.2022
Welcome to our new group member Lisa Pfeiffer, who will be working with Peter Pennitz and Cengiz Gökeri on their Charité 3R project titled: “Approaching xeno-free cultivation and utilization of pulmonary pathogens in vitro”.
18.01.2022
Congratulations to Peter Pennitz and Cengiz Gökeri for being awarded the Charité 3R grant for “xeno-free in vitro science”! They will be evaluating various commercially available and self-made xeno-free or xeno-reduced alternatives to cultivate Streptococcus pneumoniae that can be used for in vivo and in vitro models of pneumococcal infection.
2021
24.12.2021
Congratulations to Sandra-Maria Wienhold and Markus Brack for their work on preclinical assessment of bacteriophage therapy against pulmonary Acinetobacter baumannii infection in mice. Collaborative efforts identified a potential bacteriophage to treat A. baumannii infection in mice with promising implications for future therapeutic development.
16.09.2021
Congratulations to Alexander Taylor for the successful defense of his PhD thesis!
11.08.2021
Our COVID-19 study titled „Temporal omics analysis in Syrian hamsters unravel cellular effector responses to moderate COVID-19“ is published in Nature Communications. Many thanks to our collaboration partners at Freie Universität Berlin, BIMSB, MDC and BIH.
You find the press release here.
22.04.2021
Congratulations to Cengiz Gökeri and Geraldine Nouailles for receiving a Sonnenfeld Stiftung grant!
03.03.2021
Bravo Christoph Tabeling, Sandra-Maria Wienhold and Markus Brack for publishing their work related to pulmonary fibrosis in Fra-2 transgenic mice and the subsequent susceptibility to pneumococcal pneumonia, we are thankful we could contribute.
2020
22.12.2020
Longitudinal omics in Syrian hamsters integrated with human data unravel complexity of moderate immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 – as a result of great interdisciplinary collaboration our preprint is out now on bioRxiv. We sincerely thank our collaborators from Freie Universität Berlin, BIMSB, MDC, BIH and Charité.
22.12.2020
We are delighted to have contributed towards the clinical trial involving the pneumococcal exotoxin pneumolysin and its effects on platelets.
03.12.2020
Bravo to Sibylle Schirm, Markus Scholz and team from the e:med consortium. In our most recent study, we devised a biomathematical model of immune response and barrier function in mice with pneumococcal lung infection.