Research at the Laboratory of Molecular Inflammation (LMI) is focused on acute inflammatory reactions.

Neutrophil granulocytes are the chief leukocytes during acute inflammation. Neutrophil granulocytes are professional phagocytes, but the cells are also able to release DNA filaments to form extracellular lattices known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). NETs were first described in 2004 as a measure to trap and kill bacteria during infection.Today, NETs are fundamentally integrated acute inflammatory reaction under infectious or sterile conditions. Our goal is to understand how NETs control the progression and outcome of acute inflammation in different disease categories.

Thromboembolic and cardiovascular disease

We use NETs as a target to develop novel diagnostic assays and therapies for cardiovascular and thromboembolic diseases. The projects are supported in part by a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship to Tobias Fuchs, by a PhD student fellowship to Chandini Rangaswamy from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and by start-up funding from the Foundation for Pathobiochemistry and Molecular Diagnostics of the German Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (DGKL).

Liver inflammation

We are investigating the role of role of NETs in liver inflammation. The project is embedded in the Collaborative Research Centre 841 “Liver inflammation: infection, immune regulation and consequences”.

Laboratory of Molecular Inflammation website