Our Team
Prof. Dr. Johannes U. Mayer
Professor for Dermatological Immunotherapy
I have always been intruiged by cell-cell interactions and cellular communication and signalling. To explore some of these interactions I worked on several research projects in Germany and abroad, such as the Helmholtz Center Munich, the ENS Lyon in France and the Rockefeller University in New York. I became really interested on how Dendritic cells within the intestine sense parasites and received a wellcome trust scholarship to study these responses at the University of Glasgow, UK, where I obtained my Master of Research (M.res.) degree in 2013 and my Ph.D. in Immunology in 2017.
To further work on this research question and investigate if the tissue environment could also directly influence the functional specialisation of dendritic cells in different organs I joined the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington, New Zealand in 2017.
In 2021 I moved back to Germany to build my own research group at the Department of Dermatology and Allergology at the Philipps Universität Marburg, where my research focused on the role of different dendritic cell populations in the skin in health and disease. I was recently appointed Professor for Dermatological Immunotherapy at the Department of Dermatology of the University Medical Center Mainz where we are continueing our research efforts to understand the role of Dendritic Cells in chronic skin diseases and their interaction with other immune, stromal and epithelial cells.
Ewelina Żebrowska
visiting doctoral student (PhD)
My fascination about biology begun already when I was child. I therefore went on to study biotechnology in my home country Poland. After my master degree I went for a Erasmus intership at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany, where I had opportunity to get more knowledge about RNA biology, which helped me understand the complexity biological processes.
Currently I am PhD Student at the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research in Olsztyn, Poland where I am working on the interactions between macrophages and fibroblasts during endometrial fibrosis development. During my research journey I fell in love with immunology and am excited to study the immune and non-immune cell interactions in health and diseases at the Dermatological Immunotherapy Group in Mainz.
Mani Meghana Konga
Doctoral student (PhD)
I enjoy conducting root cause analysis because identifying pathogens in diseases makes pinpointing the root cause easier. Furthermore conditions with complex origins, such as autoimmunity or cancer, especially pique my curiosity.
When I discovered the chromium hyperaccumulating potential of Brachiaria ramosa plant during my master's dissertation, I was inspired to explore molecular-level controls. Simultaneously, with the pandemic around, my focus shifted to the immune system, leading me to work at Syngene with the Cell Therapy group for two years. Through diverse industry projects like γδ T cells expansion, CAR-T, therapeutic bispecific antibodies, and a target validation study, my interests in therapeutic development intensified, particularly in immune system augmentation.
I am inspired to leverage the existing immune system to cure pathologies. This drives me to explore rare, unexplored populations of T-cells. At the Mayer lab, I study Ex-Tregs (Tregs that lost their regulatory properties) and explore their application in cancer immunotherapy.
Daniel Paul
Doctoral Student (Dr. rer. nat.)
Philipps University Marburg
My curiosity about life science research made me complete my bachelor's and master's degrees in biotechnology in India. Knowing that immunology holds great promise for several aggressive diseases like cancer, I wanted to pursue my research in this field. I previously worked in cancer biology, focusing on the action of bioactive compounds and epigenetics. I was highly interested in the research group of Dr. Johannes Mayer, focused on dendritic cells, and am now a doctoral candidate in the DC biology lab.
In my project I aim to identify the molecular mechanisms of dendritic cell suppression leading to T-cell dysfunctionality in human ovarian and murine pancreatic cancer models. I will also analyse the tumor microenvirnoment to understand how this DC supression or unresponsiveness is mediated.