Immunology Seminar Series

Please note that the speaker has changed!

December 13th at 14:00 – 15:00 (Finland time)

Virtual event

Alexander Mildner, University of Turku: The two faces of myeloid cells – The pleiotropic role of GM-CSF on macrophages during health and disease

Host: Riitta Lahesmaa (rilahes@utu.fi )

Registration latest December 12th at: https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/5F429D52A900B4CE 

Immunology seminar series is jointly organised by the Finnish Society for Immunology, InFLAMES Flagship and Turku Bioscience. For further information contact Anne Lahdenperä (ankahy@utu.fi) or Riitta Lahesmaa (rilahes@utu.fi), University of Turku.

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Alex Mildner is associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku. He studied Biology at the Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany and after earning his master’s degree he joined Prof Dr. M. Prinz group at the University Medical Center Göttingen as graduate student. After obtaining his PhD, Alex did his postdoctoral studies in Prof. Dr. S. Jung group at the  Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and in Prof. Dr. J. Priller group at the Charité Berlin, Department for Molecularly Neuropsychiatry. Before his current position at the University of Turku Alex held a position as Independent Group Leader Position at the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Germany.

Alex Mildner and his group are currently investigating the differentiation of myeloid cells under steady state as well as pathological conditions such as autoimmunity in various tissues using epigenetic approaches including ATACseq, ChIPseq and high resolution immune profiling like scRNA-Seq. The central goal of Mildner laboratory is to identify new factors that are involved in the differentiation of monocytes and macrophages under pathological conditions. They hope to manipulate the fate and activation status of macrophages and thereby beneficially influence disease progression.

The transcription factor C/EBPβ is expressed in cells of the myeloid lineage, especially in monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells. Recently, Alex Mildner has applied epigenetic approaches to identify C/EBPβ as one of the main regulators of monocyte and Alveolar macrophage development under physiological conditions. Deficiency of C/EBPβ in mice let to a complete absence of Ly6C- monocytes due to impaired induction of the monocytic survival factor Nr4a1. In Alveolar macrophages, C/EBPβ controlled the expression of a lipid catabolic program.

Selected publications:

Dörr D, Obermayer B, Weiner JM, Zimmermann K, Anania C, Wagner LK, Lyras EM, Sapozhnikova V, Lara-Astiaso D, Prósper F, Lang R, Lupiáñez DG, Beule D, Höpken UE, Leutz A, Mildner A. C/EBPβ regulates lipid metabolism and Pparg isoform 2 expression in alveolar macrophages. Sci Immunol. 2022 Sep 16;7(75):eabj0140.

Giladi A*, Wagner LK*, Li H, Dörr D, Medaglia C, Paul F, Shemer A, Jung S, Yona S, Mack M, Leutz A, Amit I*, Mildner A* (2020): Cxcl10+ monocytes define a pathogenic subset in the central nervous system during autoimmune neuroinflammation. Nat Immunol. 21(5):525-534.

Mildner A, Mack M, Schmidt H, Brück W, Djukic M, Zabel MD, Hille A, Priller J, Prinz M (2009): CCR2+Ly-6Chi monocytes are crucial for the effector phase of autoimmunity in the central nervous system. Brain. 132(Pt 9):2487-500.