Our mission:
Decoding type 2 immunity to drive better therapies for inflammatory and infectious diseases.
News
Two awards for our team: Faculty award for Sina Bohnacker & Georges Köhler prize for Julia
Esser-von Bieren
Postdoc Sina Bohnacker (front, middle) has been awarded a Faculty Award by the UNIL Faculty of Biology and Medicine for her thesis "From viruses to worms - regulation of macrophage activation in infectious disease."
Our PI, Julia Esser-von Bieren has received the Georges-Köhler-Prize from the German Society for Immunology (DGfI) for her groundbreaking work related to type 2 immune responses.
https://www.unil.ch/news/1756125818943
https://dgfi.org/ausgezeichnet-dgfi-early-and-advanced-career-prizes-2025/
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New study on ApoE deficiency in N-ERD in the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology
created with Biorender
credits: A. Mastin/Science Immunology
Our favourite worms on the cover!
Research led by former PhD student and postdoc Antonie Lechner (now UZH) identifies apolipoprotein E (ApoE) as an important protective factor in chronic type 2 inflammatory diseases: Patients with NSAID-exacerbated respiratory disease (N-ERD) lack ApoE production by macrophages, resulting in heightened inflammatory activation and susceptibility to ferroptosis, a form of cell death driven by lipid peroxidation:
Research by our postdoc Sina Bohnacker shows that the helminth parasite Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri (Hpb) uses an enzyme called glutamate dehydrogenase to evade host type 2 immunity: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciimmunol.adl1467
Spotlight in Trends in Parasitology
Read this excellent spotlight by Prof. Bart Everts on our recent Science Immunology publication:
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​https://www.cell.com/trends/parasitology/fulltext/S1471-4922(25)00034-0
Kurzgesagt movie about allergies & worms
Fun to watch - our new favourite kurzgesagt movie
highlights the importance and origins of type 2 immunity
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Events & Activities
Welcome to Lausanne!
The 2025 annual congress of the Swiss Society for Allergology and Immunology is taking place in beautiful Lausanne this year - looking forward to two days of cutting-edge research
Fun during Team Sledging in Les Diablerets
Team Hike in Ovronnaz
Research
Understanding and targeting type 2 immunity
Please see our key publications
Our ongoing projects aim to understand how type 2 immune responses become chronic and how we can re-set pathological type 2 immunity.
Using a translational approach we aim to uncover the mechanisms underlying chronic type 2 inflammation and uncover new immune regulators produced by helminth parasites. Thus, we hope to contribute to a better understanding and ultimately the improved management of diseases such as asthma, allergy and nasal polyposis.
We are a diverse team with expertise in and passion for
immunology, biochemistry and parasitology.
