Christian studied biology at the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen. After his diploma thesis at the LMU Munich, he continued as a PhD student in Prof. David Vöhringer's lab. In 2011, the lab relocated to Erlangen, where he obtained his PhD in 2015. He then joined Prof. Padraic Fallon's Translational Immunology Group at Trinity College Dublin as a research fellow and EMBO fellow. Since 2019 he holds a group leader position at the Institute of Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at the Uniklinikum Erlangen.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7084-268X

Christian enjoys music and movies, plays the guitar, loves archery and is a member of the DreamTeam (SpVgg Erlangen).

Andrea was trained as a medical technical assistant at the technical school in Erlangen. After her state examination she gained experience in different labs in Erlangen, including the Nephrology, Microbiology and long time at the Dermatology. Since 2020 she is back at the Microbiology Institute and makes sure the lab is working :-)

In her free time, Andrea likes reading, hiking, board games with her family and works honorary as the main shopper of the public library.

Inaya completed her M.Sc. at the Lebanese University in Beirut. To pursue her love for infection biology, she performed her PhD in the lab of Prof. Anja Lührmann at the Microbiology Institute in Erlangen. In 2020, she defended her PhD thesis and stayed as a postdoc, to further engage into the world of microbes. Then it was time to jump to the other side of infection biology – the immunology part. Therefore, she joined the group of Dr. Christian Schwartz, where she will study the effects of obesity on antimicrobial responses and tissue repair.

Apart from science, Inaya loves to explore different cities around the world with her family. She also enjoys cooking Lebanese food for herself and the people around her 😉

Viviane studied Molecular Medicine at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. During her master thesis at the University Greifswald, she investigated the influence of bacterial proteins on innate immune cells and the activation of T cells. For her PhD project, she studies the effect of the checkpoint-inhibitor PD-L1 on the development of obesity and the sex specific differences in this context.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8004-9960

In her free time, Viviane loves to try out different sports, making music or just spending a quiet night home with friends (or her cats).

Lea studied Molecular Life Science at the University of Lübeck. She finished her M.Sc. in 2022 by investigating the interplay between the vaginal microbiota and chlamydial infections in vivo. To further extend her knowledge in immunology, she joined the working group for her PhD. She is going to investigate the effects of obesity on antimicrobial responses and tissue repair.

In her free time, Lea loves to be surrounded by her friends. She likes to play board games, read or knit.

Moritz studies Human Medicine at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. He just finished his 2. Staatsexamen and started his practical year. For his MD thesis, he investigates the functional role of reverse signalling through the intracellular domain of PD-L1 in group 2 innate lymphoid cells.

Ole is currently studying human medicine at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg in his sixth year. After the seventh semester, he spent one year to focus on research. Here, he studied the influence of PD-1:PD-L1 interaction on T-helper cell polarization.

When Ole is not in the library, he plays electric guitar in a local band or spends a lot of time doing sports, playing football and riding his racing bike.

Vojtěch studies Human Medicine at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. He joined the lab in 2022 to study the effect of obesity on peripheral immune cell function focussing on the functional analysis of ILC2 and T helper cells.

In his free time, Vojtěch works with young swimmers as a swim coach, swims himself, loves to play the piano or spending time with his friends and family.

Maria studied Bioanalysis at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts. She joined the group for the summer semester 2022 for a practical course and her B.Sc. thesis project investigating the effect of obesity on immune cell function in clinical samples.