Our Team

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.

My daily motivation is to learn and to improve medical treatments by making use of the most cutting-edge scientific methods. Starting my career in 2008, I became highly attracted to the enormously potential of flow cytometry. Subsequently, my expertise rapidly grew alongside technological progression. Beginning with the BD FACScan, I advanced to conducting experiments on nearly every BD platform, including cell sorting with the BD FACS Aria III or BD FACS Melody, and working with spectral-enabled devices like the BD FACSSymphony A5SE. Nowadays, in the Mayer Lab, the Cytek Aurora is my new companion for further learning. Another key area of expertise is my knowledge in implementing cutting-edge technologies and methodologies in complex working environments, both academic and corporate. In my last position at BioNTech SE, I implemented and managed the Flow Cytometry Core Facility.

Scientifically, my main background and interests are in investigating APC-T cell interactions. At the Mayer Lab, I aim to further deepen my scientific knowledge, as well as bridge the gap between wet-lab and dry-lab support, to enhance our expertise in flow cytometry and to support our colleagues in the best possible way with all kind of flow cytoemtry questions.

Hello, I am Sunrito Mitra. I am really intrigued by understanding the impact of diseases on the immune system, which led me to pursue my bachelor's thesis on H. pylori-induced gastric cancer. However, working in a clinical setting, I realised the gap in fundamental research. That made me pursue a research-orientated masters at Ghent University in Belgium. During my master's, I worked on diverse topics but really got intrigued by the "hygiene hypothesis," which suggests that our immune system is impacted by the environment and diseases it encouters shifting industrialized countries to more severe immune disorders. This led me to pursue my master's thesis on macrophages in metabolic-dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) at VIB-UGENT.

The desire to better grasp the immune system has led me to start my PhD at the lab of Prof. Johannes Mayer. I will be working on unravelling dendritic cell subsets in immunopriviledged organs such as the epididymis and testis. I look forward to the challenges ahead and becoming a well-rounded scientist.

I am Zhenfei Li from China. During my master's studies, I focused on researching the correlation between skin tumors, such as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), mycosis fungoides (MF) MF), Castleman’s disease (CD) CD), pyogenic granuloma (PG) and human herpesvirus 8. After graduation, I became a dermatologist in the Second People’s Hospital of Changzhi, dedicating myself to clinical work. In recent years, I have recognized certain deficiencies and gaps in my research knowledge. To better learn and innovate, I am fortunate to join Prof. Johannes Mayer's team and to do a PhD in his lab. While I feel lucky, I am also aware of the challenges ahead. I hope to complete my PhD through hard work and strive to become a clinician-scientist in the future.

I am passionate about understanding the intricacies of the human body and why diseases develop. I therefore became a medical student at the University Medical Center  Mainz. This journey began with a voluntary year at a hospital, which solidified my desire to study medicine.

Alongside my studies, I'm excited to be a medical doctoral student at the lab of Prof. Johannes Mayer. My work focuses on the fascinating realm of the innate immune system, particularly on very new aspects that focus on innate memory. My doctoral thesis will explore the changes in function and differentiation of dendritic cells and their progenitors during chronic infection to see if these changes play a long-term role on how we recognize pathogens. In my project I will use a 30-color full spectrum flow cytometry panel to profile the changes of innate and adaptive progenitor cells in the bone marrow and am excited about using this novel technology.