SPEAKERS

Find out who you can discuss the latest updates and results with on the spot and where they are from…

SPECIAL LECTURES

The 55th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Immunology (DGfI) will feature two outstanding invited speakers whose work has profoundly shaped modern immunology.

We are especially honored to welcome Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine, awarded for his groundbreaking discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance and regulatory T cells (Tregs).
His seminal work revealed fundamental mechanisms by which the immune system prevents harmful autoreactivity, transforming our understanding of autoimmunity, cancer, and transplantation immunology.

We are also delighted to welcome Professor Federica Sallusto, one of the world’s leading experts in human T‑cell biology. Her pioneering research on T‑cell differentiation, memory, and trafficking—including the identification of central and effector memory T cells as well as Th17 and Th22 subsets—has had a lasting impact on both basic and translational immunology.

With Professor Sakaguchi and Professor Sallusto, the 55th DGfI Annual Meeting brings together two extraordinary scientific leaders whose discoveries continue to shape the present and future of immunological research.

PLENARY SESSIONS
Systemsimmunology und AI

Jan Baumbach

Network Medicine GPT – A Foundation Model for Disease Mechanism Mining and Drug Repurposing

Joachim Schultze

Systems Immunology in Brain Health. A new frontier

Immunobiology of infection

Veit Hornung

Detection of non-self nucleic acids by Toll-like receptors

Laura Mackay

Functional heterogeneity of tissue-resident lymphocytes

Leslie Berg

Linking variations in TCR signal strength to CD8+ T cell differentiation

Enabling Technologies

Ido Amit

Leveraging Single-Cell Technologies to Engineer the Immune System 1

Charlotte M Deane

Functional heterogeneity of tissue-resident lymphocytes

Immunoncology

Mathias Heikenwälder

Tailored modulation of the tumor micro-environment by combinatorial immune-check point treatment overcomes therapy resistance of liver cancer

Matthew Krummel

Tumors as Lenses Into Immune Archetypes

Axel Kallies

MAIN SESSIONS
Immunity in the Central nervous System

Manuel Friese

Decording neuro-immune interactions in multiple sclerosis

Frauke Zipp

Therapeutic strategies at the interface between immune and nervous system

Christian Münz

Neuroinflammation after non-neurotropic herpesvirus infection

Immune responses in Joints and Connective Tissues

Gerhard Krönke

Novel checkpoints controlling onset and resolution of inflammation

Eicke Latz

Christopher Buckley

Fibroblasts: master regulators of inflammation

Immunity in the Skin

Constanze Jakwerth

Christina Zielinski

Decoding the regulation of human tissue-resident T cells body-wide

Immunotherapy and Mechanisms

Christian Schulz

Macrophage-targeting in myocardial injury

Benjamin Youngblood

Translating epigenetic mechanisms of T cell exhaustion into durable immunotherapy

Karl Sebastian Lang

Anti-tumoral immunity induced by optimized tumor-tropic arenaviruses and its potential clinical benefits

Daniel Utzschneider

Targeting of exhausted T cells in chronic infection and cancer

Cardiovascular immunology

Florian Leuschner

The impact of valvular heart disease on inflammation

Almudena Ramiro

TBA

Federica Marelli-Berg

Cardiac autoimmunity

Michael Bader

Immunity in the Kidneys

Hans-Joachim Anders

The immunology behind novel therapies for immune-mediated KDntation 1

Christian Kurts

Immune mechanisms underlying inflammatory and infectious kidney disease

Ulf Panzer

T-cell mediated injury in autoimmune kidney disease

Daniela Krause

Harnessing extracellular matrix proteins for modification of normal and malignant haematopoiesis

Bone marrow and Haematopoiesis

Hannah Uckelmann

Targeting epigenetics regulators in leukemia development

Kathrin de la Rosa

Leveraging Antibody Repertoires for Biomarker Discovery and Innovative Prevention Strategies

Immunity in the Lungs

Silvia Knapp

Determinants of pulmonary immune homeostasis

Birgit Sawatzki

Rewiring T Cell Function in Acute Infection: Molecular Drivers of Lung Immunopathology and Post-Infectious Sequelae

Immunotherapy and Immunoengineering

Susana Minguet

Harnessing TCR Discoveries for the Next Generation of Immunotherapies

Marion Subklewe

Turning T-cells against AML

Elvira Mass

Developmental Programming of Tissue-Resident Macrophages

Immunity in the Liver

Maike Hofmann

Petra Bacher

T cell mediated immunity to fungal microbes in inflammatory bowel diseases

Matteo Iannacone

Immune surveillance of the liver

Immunity in the Intestine

Matthias Friedrich

Fibroblast response in intestinal inflammation and fibrosis

Emma Wetter Slack

Using oral vaccines to manipulate microbial ecology in the gut