SFB 1192:  Immune-Mediated Glomerular Diseases - Basic Concepts and Clinical Implications -

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: since 2016
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264599542

Immune-mediated glomerular diseases (Glomerulonephritides, GN) are a major and constantly increasing cause of end-stage renal diseases worldwide and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Fundamental to each form of GN is a pathogenic immune response against renal autoantigens or the local manifestations of systemic autoimmunity in the kidney, resulting in glomerular injury, proteinuria and various degrees of renal functional decline. Current therapeutic strategies usually aim at broadly suppressing the immune system, often do not halt or reverse the disease and are frequently associated with disabling side effects. We have established the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1192 to dissect immune-mediated glomerular diseases at the molecular, cellular, systemic and individual level to ultimately bridge the translational gap between experimental studies and improved patient outcomes within the 12-year funding perspective and beyond. Over the past eight years, this CRC has fundamentally shifted the understanding of various immune-mediated glomerular diseases such as membranous nephropathy (MN), rapidly progressive GN, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and complement-mediated glomerular disease. Moreover, on the basis of MN, a first blueprint of how to close translational circles was established. From the discovery of novel MN antigens, to generating reliable MN animal models, to proofing the pathogenicity of MN autoantibodies, to establishing autoantibody-biomarker directed clinical workflows and to adjust the international clinical guidelines, this CRC has improved the patient outcome and safety for MN as the most common cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults. Following our overarching aim of deepening a highly resolved mechanistic understanding as basis to enable an individualized risk prediction, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of immune-mediated glomerular disease, this CRC will continue to cluster leading experts in clinical and experimental nephrology, nephropathology, basic and translational immunology, digital science and machine learning. Furthermore, the CRC KIDNEY RESEARCH ACADEMY (RISE) will ensure the consistent training, education, career acceleration and inclusion of emerging and diverse kidney researchers. Combined with the CRC Hamburg Glomerulonephritis Registry, novel technological platforms and experimental model systems, the CRC 1192 will remain an international catalyst towards pathogenesis-based and individualized treatment approaches in the field of immune-mediated glomerular diseases.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Current projects

• A01 - Mechanisms and function of T cell derived cytokines in crescentic glomerulonephritis (Project Head Panzer, Ulf )
• A02 - Investigating the links between pathogenicity and antigen specificity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in crescentic glomerulonephritis (Project Heads Bonn, Stefan ;  Neumann, Katrin ;  Prinz, Immo )
• A03 - Function of effector Treg subsets in glomerulonephritis (Project Head Steinmetz, Oliver Michael )
• A04 - Dissecting the cross talks between tissue resident memory T cells and kidney tissue (Project Heads Gagliani, Ph.D., Nicola ;  Mittrücker, Hans-Willi )
• A05 - Targeting Th17 cell adaptation in renal autoimmune diseases (Project Heads Huber, Samuel ;  Krebs, Christian )
• A06 - Innate and innate-like lymphocytes in immune-mediated glomerular diseases (Project Heads Bunders, Ph.D., Madeleine ;  Turner, Jan-Eric )
• A08 - Myeloid immune cell subsets and the renal microenvironment in glomerulonephritis (Project Heads Kurts, Christian ;  von Vietinghoff, Sibylle )
• B01 - Membranous Nephropathy: Pathogenetic Mechanisms and Clinical Implications (Project Heads Hoxha, Elion ;  Reinhard, Linda )
• B02 - Structural and functional characterization of podocyte antigens in autoantibody-mediated glomerulonephritis (Project Heads Hengel, Felicitas E. ;  Huber, Tobias B. ;  Wilmanns, Ph.D., Matthias )
• B03 - The (immuno)proteasome as a modifier of podocyte membrane dynamics in membranous nephrophathy (Project Heads Köhler, Sybille ;  Meyer-Schwesinger, Catherine )
• B05 - Nanobody-based treatment strategies in glomerulonephritis (Project Heads Tomas, Nicola ;  Wanner, Nicola )
• B06 - Function and regulation of systemic and local complement C3 in immune-mediated kidney diseases (Project Heads Freiwald, Tilo ;  Wiech, Thorsten )
• B08 - Identifying pathways and factors causing primary focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (Project Heads Huber, Tobias B. ;  Mühlig, Anne Katrin )
• B09 - Decoding of crescent fate in an integrative and translational approach (Project Heads Grahammer, Florian ;  Puelles, Ph.D., Victor G. ;  Zimmermann, Marina )
• B10 - Proteolytic control of immune-mediated kidney diseases (Project Head Rinschen, Markus )
• C01 - Hamburg Glomerulonephritis Registry (Project Heads Hoxha, Elion ;  Huber, Tobias B. ;  Lindenmeyer, Maja ;  Wiech, Thorsten )
• C02 - Management and Coordination of the CRC (Project Head Huber, Tobias B. )
• C03 - High-dimensional single cell profiling in renal autoimmune diseases (Project Heads Bonn, Stefan ;  Krebs, Christian ;  Panzer, Ulf )
• MGK - Mechanisms of Immune-Mediated Tissue Injury (Project Heads Harendza, Sigrid ;  Panzer, Ulf )

Completed projects

• A07 - Neutrophil extracellular traps in lupus nephritis (Project Head Fuchs, Tobias )
• B07 - The innate immune response in hypertensive glomerular injury (Project Heads Ehmke, Heimo ;  Wenzel, Ulrich )

• Applicant Institution: Universität Hamburg
• Participating University: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
• Participating Institution: Europäisches Laboratorium für Molekularbiologie (EMBL); Außenstelle Hamburg
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr. Tobias B. Huber, since 1/2024; Professor Dr. Ulf Panzer, until 12/2023