Decoding and harnessing the impact of immune‐experience on the spatio‐temporal cellular interaction networks underlying bone healing (P01)

• Subject Area: Medical Informatics and Medical Bioinformatics
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 427826188

Cellular composition, interaction and communication change dynamically during the bone healing process depending on their spatial proximity to each other and to the fracture area. Previous exposure to immunological stimuli, termed immune experience, has been identified as a key factor in determining the cellular communication that enables or prevents efficient healing. Unraveling regulatory to effector T cell ratio as well as an interdependency of bone regeneration and adjacent lymph node immunology as key factors of successful healing led to the aim of systematically decoding the inter-cellular interaction cascades underlying bone healing and its dysfunction, with a specific focus on the impact of previous immune experience, the role of the adaptive immune system and cross-organ communication between bone marrow and adjacent lymph nodes in this project. Mapping the signaling and receptor/ligand landscape will complement our understanding of the cellular communication network underlying bone healing and its modulation in chronological and immunological ageing.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1444: Directed Cellular Self-Organization to Advance Bone Regeneration
• Applicant Institution: shared FU Berlin and HU Berlin through:; Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Simon Haas, since 1/2025; Privatdozentin Dr. Katharina Schmidt-Bleek; Professor Dr. Hans-Dieter Volk, until 12/2024