Luciana Berod

Biography

Dr. Luciana Berod is a Biochemist majored in Immunology and Molecular Microbiology from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she also started her scientific career in the field of Reproductive Immunology in 2001. She completed her PhD thesis at the Institute of Immunology from the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena under the direction of Prof. Thomas Kamradt, whose research focuses on understanding the pathological immune mechanisms leading to autoimmunity. There, she studied the importance of PI3K-dependent intracellular signaling pathways for the induction, function and migration of pathogenic T cells (e.g. Th17) during Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis, the murine model of Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Berod is currently establishing her own junior research group at the Institute of Infection Immunology at Twincore. Her research focuses on understanding basic mechanisms used by dendritic cells and T cells to mount different types of immune responses, and to exploit this potential for the treatment and/or prevention of chronic infections and immune-mediated diseases. Luciana Berod’s work concentrates on specific infection models, e.g. the Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection model to study the mechanisms of tolerance and immunity during mycobacterial infection. In this regard, she could recently demonstrate that autoimmunity is often an unwanted side-effect of strong vaccines mediating T cellular immunity in the context of Mycobacterium bovis / tuberculosisinfection.

Research Interest

Infection Immunology