Klaus Eyer receives ERC Starting Grant to study immunological reactions which follow vaccinations

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Klaus Eyer an ERC starting grant to develop a new microfluidic single-cell approach to advance the understanding of the complex immunological reaction that follows vaccinations. Vaccines are our most valuable tool to prevent diseases, and functional antibody repertoires play an important role ensuring protection after administration thereof.

Depending on the nature of the biological threat (virus, bacteria, toxin), required protective functionalities vary greatly. Therefore, each vaccination against those individual threads also needs to trigger an appropriate and protective functional antibody response.

However, as of today, the measurement of these functionalities in a quantitative, high-throughput manner is not feasible. Within the proposed project, an innovative microfluidic technology combined with a methodical and quantitative approach to vaccinations will enable the FuncMab research team to generate data sets needed to advance the understanding of immunological processes that are engaged in protection.

Such measures provide helpful insights and knowledge on the development of new vaccine candidates against a multitude of diseases. They will also help to study a variety of fundamental immunological questions on the evolution of the functional repertoires.