Dr. Andreas Villunger
Professor
Developmental Immunology
Innsbruck Medical University
Austria
Biography
Andreas Villunger is full professor at the Medical University in Innsbruck, Austria, where he heads the Division of Developmental Immunology at the MUI-Biocenter. He has a strong track record in generating and analyzing genetically modified mouse models and has first characterized the physiological functions of the BH3-only proteins PUMA and Noxa as well as of related Bmf. He also explored the role of BH3-only proteins in different models of lymphatic malignancies, including Eμ- Myc and γ-irradiation driven lymphomas, thereby demonstrating that pro-death genes can unexpectedly also exert tumour-promoting functions. In the recent past his research focuses on the interaction of the cell death and cell cycle machineries and the role of the PIDDosome in sterile inflammation.
Research Interest
Lymphocyte development and transformation, innate and adoptive immunity, cell death signaling, Bcl2 family proteins, caspases, p53 signaling
Publications
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Brand A, Singer K, Koehl GE, Kolitzus M, Schoenhammer G, Thiel A, Matos C, Bruss C, Klobuch S, Peter K, Kastenberger M. LDHA-associated lactic acid production blunts tumor immunosurveillance by T and NK cells. Cell metabolism. 2016 Nov 8;24(5):657-71.
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Sochalska M, Schuler F, Weiss JG, Prchal-Murphy M, Sexl V, Villunger A. MYC selects against reduced BCL2A1/A1 protein expression during B cell lymphomagenesis. Oncogene. 2017 Apr;36(15):2066.
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Tuzlak S, Kaufmann T, Villunger A. Interrogating the relevance of mitochondrial apoptosis for vertebrate development and postnatal tissue homeostasis. Genes & development. 2016 Oct 1;30(19):2133-51.
