UD

Institute of Immunology - University of Debrecen - Debrecen

The Medical and Health Science Centre of the University of Debrecen is the largest medical school in Hungary, both in patients’ number and in research capacity. The Institute of Immunology was established in 2000. The scientific and R&D programs of the Institute were supported by joint projects with other Departments of the University and by national and international grants and collaborations. The research team of young scientists has been trained in the USA and in Sweden, and today presents a diverse expertise in molecular and cellular immunology including cellular signalling, molecular immunology of allergy, infectious diseases and autoimmunity. The Institute is also committed to further develop its translational research potential and has been instrumental in launching a GMP-level cell therapy facility being the first in Hungary.

Research and Training Expertise

The Institute has strong knowledge on various fields of Immunology, including B- and T-, as well as dendritic cell biology. The examination of the differentiation and function of hematopoietic stem cells and dendritic cells stands in the focal point of the institute's research advances. In the recent years, the institute has developed important skills in studying the expression and signalling through NOD-like receptors (NLR) and nucleotide binding proteins (NBP).

The Department warrants an interdisciplinary approach and thinking in the training of students. The University is educating students in English for 20 years, and currently more than 1000 foreign students are enrolled in the medical program enlightening its attractivity. They have their own associations and foreign PhD students are welcomed to join their activities (e.g. sport associations, national celebrations, Christmas and New Eve Party, Competition of National Kitchens, etc.).

Key persons involved

Eva Rajnavolgyi, Ph.D., D.Sc., Professor of Immunology is head of the department of Immunology, and trained a large number of graduate student and young scientist. She played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Cell Therapy Centre at the Medical and Health Science Centre (MHSC). She has developed sounded advances on human DC differentiation and function, authoring 89 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Arpad Lanyi, Ph.D., Associate Professor studies the role of the SLAM family of co-receptor in DCs and their role in T-cell function. He has experience in DC gene transfer, gene silencing and analysis of DC function.

Attila Bacsi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, has experience in both in vitro and in vivo systems to study the effects of ROS on the functional activity of DCs, epithelial cells, and mitochondria.

Material Ressources

The laboratories are well equipped for state-of-art cellular and molecular immunology methods. Expertise includes high throughput determination of cytokine profiles by cytokine arrays, FACS array and Luminex technology. Special equipments include flow cytometry and  cell sorting, quantitative RT-PCR, and Taqman low density arrays.

The Health Science Centre runs a Genomics Core facility and Cut laser microdissector,  a Proteomics Core facility, and Imaging Core facility readily available for all institutes.

There are dormitories, apartments and guest houses available for Ph.D. fellows and participants of meetings.

3 Key publications

  • Gogolak P, Rethi B, Szatmari I, Lanyi A, Dezso B, Nagy L, Rajnavolgyi E. (2007) Differentiation of CD1a- and CD1a+ monocyte-derived dendritic cells is biased by lipid environment and PPARgamma. Blood; 109:643-52.[Pubmed]
  • Szatmari I, Pap A, Ruhl R, Ma JX, Illarionov PA, Besra GS, et al. (2006) PPARgamma controls CD1d expression by turning on retinoic acid synthesis in developing human dendritic cells. J Exp Med; 203:2351-62.[Pubmed]
  • Szatmari I, Gogolak P, Im JS, Dezso B, Rajnavolgyi E, Nagy L. (2004) Activation of PPARgamma specifies a dendritic cell subtype capable of enhanced induction of iNKT cell expansion. Immunity; 21:95-106.[Pubmed]