Principal Investigator - German Cancer Research Center
The role of EBV infection in the development of Multiple Sclerosis.
Heidelberg, Germany
Posted on May 12, 2024 • 3 minutes • 607 words
Table of contents
Contribution to the project
The team will isolate and characterize the Epstein-Barr viral strains that infect patients with multiple sclerosis. It will also analyse the interactions between the virus, the immune system and the central nervous system.
Team Members
Henri-Jacques Delecluse - Lab head
Henri-Jacques studied Medicine at the University of Lille, France. He did a specialty in Pathology at the University of Lyon, France. He is head of division at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and professor at the |University of Heidelberg since 2003. His research focuses on the genetic analysis of the Epstein-Barr virus functions and they lead to cancer development. More recently, Prof. Delecluse embarked on a new project that focuses on the interactions between the Epstein-Barr virus, the central nervous system and the immune system.
Susanne Delecluse – Clinical Scientist
Susanne studied Medicine at Charité – University Medicine Berlin, Germany. She specialized in nephrology at Virchow-Klinikum Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. From 2013-2019 Susanne was a specialist registrar in Internal Medicine and Nephrology at University Heidelberg. Since 2019 she is a specialist for Internal Medicine and Nephrology at the Division of Nephrology (University hospital Heidelberg). She joined the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg in 2014 as Coordinator of the “Transplantation and Cancer” board. Since 2020 she is a group leader at the DKFZ.
Francesco Baccianti – Postdoctoral Scientist
Francesco graduated from the University of Bologna and from the University of Milan, where he obtained a master’s degree in Medical Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine. He joined the Delecluse Lab in 2017 as a PhD Candidate, working on the interplay between the host and the EBV virus and the events that occurr shortly after infection. As a postdoctoral researcher, among other topics, he is interested in studying the effect of interindividual variability in the early response to EBV infection and how this variability might play a role in EBV-associated non malignant diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
Gesa Frese – Project Manager
Gesa Frese obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in (Molecular) Biosciences at the University of Heidelberg. After her studies she worked at SpringerNature in book acquisition and later at the University of Heidelberg as Scientific Project Manager. She joined DKFZ as the project manager of the BEHIND-MS consortium in February 2024.
Lisa Greiner - Financial Manager (Department: Grants Office)
Lisa Greiner has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She has been working for the DKFZ Grants Office since 2013 as a financial manager of several nationally and internationally funded projects. She has been responsible for the financial administration of 16 EU-funded projects in total (incl. FP7, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe). Lisa supports the project coordinator through collecting the financial reports and communication with the project officer.
Jonathan Till Abele - PhD student
Till studied Chemistry with a specialization in biotechnology and bioanalytics at TU Wien. In autumn of 2024 he joined the Delecluse Lab as a PhD Candidate. For his thesis he will be working on interactions between neural cells, glial cells, immune cells and EBV in an ex vivo multiple sclerosis model.
Nicole Feichtgruber - PhD student
Nicole obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Molecular Medicine at the University of Regensburg. She joined the Delecluse lab as a PhD candidate in November 2024, where she is interested how latently EBV-infected B cells reshape the environment of the CNS.
Inès Ruxer - PhD student
Inès obtained her Master’s degree in Biotechnology at the European School of Biotechnology of Strasbourg. She joined the Delecluse lab as a PhD candidate in February 2025. Her research will focus on studying the transmission of EBV immunogenicity between the immune cells and the CNS.