Laboratory for Targeted Immunotherapy
Overcoming Immune Escape via Antibody Engineering & Mechanistic Insight
Interactions between the immune system and evolving pathogens or tumors shape disease progression and therapeutic outcomes. Our laboratory investigates how viruses and cancers evade immune control and develops antibody-based strategies to counter these escape mechanisms. Building on our extensive expertise in antibody discovery and engineering, we study immune escape in HIV-1 and B-cell lymphomas to design next-generation antibody therapies.
With the overall aim to improve future immunotherapies, our group aims to
Elucidate mechanisms of immune escape in viruses and cancers,
Engineer advanced antibody formats that overcome resistance, and
Translate these findings into novel therapeutic strategies against HIV-1 and lymphoma.
Selected Publications
- Schommers P, Kim DS, Schlotz M, Kreer C, Eggeling R, Hake A, Stecher M, Park J, Radford CE, Dingens AS, Ercanoglu MS, Gruell H, Odidika S, Dahlhaus M, Gieselmann L, Ahmadov E, Lawong RY, Heger E, Knops E, Wyen C, Kümmerle T, Römer K, Scholten S, Wolf T, Stephan C, Suárez I, Raju N, Adhikari A, Esser S, Streeck H, Duerr R, Nanfack AJ, Zolla-Pazner S, Geldmacher C, Geisenberger O, Kroidl A, William W, Maganga L, Ntinginya NE, Georgiev IS, Vehreschild JJ, Hoelscher M, Fätkenheuer G, Lavinder JJ, Bloom JD, Seaman MS, Lehmann C, Pfeifer N, Georgiou G, Klein F.
Dynamics and durability of HIV-1 neutralization are determined by viral replication.
Nature Medicine (2023); 129, pages 2763–2774 - Schommers P*, Gruell H*, Abernathy ME*, Tran MK, Dingens AS, Gristick HB, Barnes CO, Schoofs T, Schlotz M, Vanshylla K, Kreer C, Weiland D, Holtick U, Scheid C, Valter MM, van Gils MJ, Sanders RW, Vehreschild JJ, Cornely OA, Lehmann C, Fätkenheuer G, Seaman MS, Bloom JD, Bjorkman PJ, Klein F.
Restriction of HIV-1 Escape by a Highly Broad and Potent Neutralizing Antibody.
Cell (2020); 180(3):471-489 - Gruell H, Schommers P.
Broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1 and concepts for application.
Current Opinion in Virology (2022); 54, 101211. - Warnat-Herresthal S*, Schultze H*, Shastry KL*, Manamohan S*, Mukherjee S*, Garg V*, Sarveswara R*, Händler K*, Pickkers P*, Aziz NA*, Ktena S*, Tran F, Bitzer M, Ossowski S, Casadei N, Herr C, Petersheim D, Behrends U, Kern F, Fehlmann T, Schommers P, Lehmann C, Augustin M, Rybniker J, et al.
Swarm Learning for decentralized and confidential clinical machine learning.
Nature (2021); 594(7862):265-270 - COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative.
Mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19. Nature 2021; 600(7889):472-477 - Kreer C*, Zehner M*, Weber T, Ercanoglu MS, Gieselmann L, Rohde C, Halwe S, Korenkov M, Schommers P, Vanshylla K, Di Cristanziano V, Janicki H, Brinker R, Ashurov A, Krähling V, Kupke A, Cohen-Dvashi H, Koch M, Eckert JM, Lederer S, Pfeifer N, Wolf T, Vehreschild MJGT, Wendtner C, Diskin R, Gruell H, Becker S, Klein F.
Longitudinal Isolation of Potent Near-Germline SARS-CoV-2-Neutralizing Antibodies from COVID-19 Patients.
Cell (2020); 182(4):843-854 - Gruell H, Vanshylla K, Tober-Lau P, Hillus D, Schommers P, Lehmann C, Kurth F, Sander LE, Klein F.
mRNA booster immunization elicits potent neutralizing serum activity against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.
Nature Medicine (2022); Jan 19:1-4 - Schoofs T*, Barnes CO*, Suh-Toma N, Golijanin J, Schommers P, Gruell H, West AP Jr, Bach F, Lee YE, Nogueira L, Georgiev IS, Bailer RT, Czartoski J, Mascola JR, Seaman MS, McElrath MJ, Doria-Rose NA, Klein F, Nussenzweig MC, Bjorkman PJ.
Broad and Potent Neutralizing Antibodies Recognize the Silent Face of the HIV Envelope. Immunity(2019); 50(6):1513-1529