David Vöhringer

…is an immunologist with expertise on type 2 immune responses directed against gastrointestinal worm parasites (helminths). He studied Biology in Tübingen and Freiburg. He received his PhD degree (Dr. rer. nat.) in 2001 from the University of Freiburg for his work on anti-viral CD8 T cell responses in the group of Prof. Hanspeter Pircher. During his Post-Doc period (2002-2005) with Prof. Richard Locksley at the University of California in San Francisco he started to work with parasitic worms (helminths) and studied the cellular mechanisms associated with a protective type 2 immune response. After that, he received an Emmy-Noether grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to establish his independent research group at the Institute of Immunology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. In 2010 he accepted the offer to continue his work as Professor and Head of the Department of Infection Biology at the University Hospital Erlangen and the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg.

David‘s research focus circles around cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate tissue type 2 immune responses which are associated with allergic inflammation and protection against helminths. The work of his research group provided new insights in the role of various effector cells including eosinophils, basophils, ILC2s, Th2 cells and IgE producing plasma cells. They further generated genetic tools to dissect the critical source and target cells of the IL-4/IL-13/STAT6 axis which play a central role in type 2 immunity.

For the project within this research consortium David Vöhringer teamed up with Vasiliy Zaburdaev to investigate the biophysical mechanisms of tissue invasion and parasite trapping in a mouse model of hookworm infection.

This research is part of Project 18 of the SPP 2332 PoP