Carmen Gerlach receives the Wallenberg Academy Fellows prolongation grant

CMM Group Leader Carmen is exploring the workings of our immune system. If we can learn from nature’s own mechanisms, it may be possible to develop better vaccines and more effective immune therapies for cancer and various autoimmune diseases.

“What I wonder is how this system can respond so effectively to so many different kinds of attack – from virus infections to a tumor, parasite or bacterium.”

Therefore, Carmen Gerlach has decided to focus her research field of interest on the fundamental principles and mechanisms of T-cell immune reaction, with particular emphasis on CD8-T-cells.

Part of the research is now focusing on identifying and analyzing the behavior of the various cells in detail. Among other things, Gerlach wants to understand how important the absence or presence of certain groups of cells is to the immune system.

Carmen Gerlach’s research group is using a number of techniques to map the origin and identity of the cells. These include flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing. Much remains unknown about how cells acquire their different characteristics, but greater knowledge may even enable scientists to induce specific, desirable cells.

“The result may be better vaccines or therapies for autoimmune diseases, as well as more effective cancer therapies. But what drives me is not the idea of curing a given disease – I want to do as much as possible to understand the underlying biology in the hope that this will lead to major medical breakthroughs in the future.”

This text is based on a press release from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Wallenberg Academy Fellows is a long-term program that addresses young researchers. In the end of the first five-year period the Wallenberg Academy Fellows can be nominated for another five years of funding. During 2024 were 15 researchers admitted a Wallenberg Academy Fellows prolongation grant.