Cluster of Excellence "Inflammation at Interfaces"
Watch the new DFG research movie: "Entzündung erforschen und therapieren"
The "Network in Inflammation Research" is a research network in which seventy different teams of academics from the Universities of Kiel and Lübeck, and the Leibniz-Center in Borstel are investigating the mechanisms of inflammation diseases, which are increasingly affecting human organs worldwide. Even in international comparison, this clustering of outstanding competence and resources in inflammation research represents a unique clinical, structural biological as well as immunological and infectiological expertise on one of the major challenges in the medical field of the 21st century.
The Bosch lab is involved in Phylogenetic analysis of NOD-like receptors. The NOD genes encodes cytosolic proteins involved in bacterial recognition. In human, NOD proteins mediate inflammatory response to bacterial antigens. Polymorphisms in the CARD15/NOD2 gene are associated with Crohn’s disease. Since molecular genetic studies revealed conserved pathways that signal host cells of microbial infection, we trace NOD genes to the basis of animal evolution and study them in two animal groups at key positions in the tree of life, the Cnidaria and the Urochordata. The project will systematically address the evolution of NOD genes and the evolutionary control of their sequence variability. The results will shed light on the evolution of the innate immune system and offer a novel ac-cess to the understanding of the underlying disease pathophysiology.