My current research focuses on T-cell mediated immune responses in peripheral tissues, which I am highly interested in because knowledge about the molecular mechanisms might be translated into treatment of a great variety of diseases. I am especially interested in the development and function of Tissue Resident Memory T cells, which remain in tissues after infection and have been shown to play a major role in protective but also harmful immune responses.
My PhD was carried out under the supervision of Prof. Christian Kurts in Bonn, Germany, and focused on Dendritic Cells in the kidney.
I characterized DCs from different compartments of the kidney in the steady state and in different nephritis models and demonstrated the dependence of effector T cell responses on the presence of mature DCs.
In November 2014 I joined the lab of Assoc. Prof. Thomas Gebhardt at the University of Melbourne, who is an expert on memory T cells and shares my interest in immune cell functions in peripheral tissues. My research now focuses on T cell immunity in the skin. Using mouse models of skin infection, autoimmunity and melanoma in combination with gene editing techniques such as ectopic expression and CRISPR/Cas9 mediated knockout, I investigate the development and function of Tissue Resident Memory T cells and their role in different skin diseases.
In collaboration with Dr. David Gyorki, who is a surgeon at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, we have recently started to work with human samples. Applying multiplex immunohistochemistry, we are investigating whether we can translate findings from our animal models into the clinic.
Find out more about Katharina Hochheiser's experience
Katharina Hochheiser's highlights
FEATURED Journal article
A high-salt diet compromises antibacterial neutrophil responses through hormonal perturbation
Read moreKatharina Hochheiser's selected work
Projects
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Project Types
1
Internal Research Grant
Scholarly Works
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Honours, Awards and Fellowships
RJS Thomas Translational Research Prize
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Credentials
Positions
Senior Research Officer
Microbiology And Immunology
Australasian Society For Immunology
Australasian Society for Immunology
German Society For Immunology
German Society for Immunology
Education
Dr. rer. nat.
University of Bonn