Alina Steinbach
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Scientific CV
| Feb 2017 - July 2017 | Postdoctoral scientist, Junior Research Group Immunotherapy and Immunoprevention, DKFZ, Heidelberg |
| 2016 | Nicola Werner Award for an excellent PhD thesis |
| 2013 - 2017 | PhD student, Junior Research Group Immunotherapy and Immunoprevention, DKFZ, Heidelberg |
| 2010 - 2012 | MSc Molecular Biosciences, Major Molecular and Cellular Biology, Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg |
| 2007 - 2010 | BSc Biology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, Bonn |
Research Project
HPV-induced changes in antigen processing and MHC-I epitope presentation
The clearance of HPV infection requires an effective T cell mediated immune response. Therefore, several approaches to develop a therapeutic vaccine have focused on HPV-derived T cell epitopes. However, these approaches so far had limited clinical success. This is caused by the fact that HPV employs numerous immune evasion mechanisms, among which MHC-I downregulation and repression of components of the antigen-processing machinery (APM) directly interfere with T cell recognition of infected or already transformed host cells.
The goal of this project was to analyze the expression of APM components systematically in a large collection of cell lines naturally transformed by HPV16. In addition, the impact of the inflammatory cytokine IFN-γ, which is enhancing antigen processing and presentation, was examined. The only consistent change of an APM component was upregulation of the ER-associated aminopeptidase ERAP1. Its upregulation reduced surface presentation of some HPV epitopes, and may thus represent a novel HPV immune evasion mechanism.
Resulting Publications
Blatnik R, Mohan N, Bonsack M, Falkenby LG, Hoppe S, Josef K, Steinbach A, Becker S, Nadler WM, Rucevic M, Larsen MR, Salek M, Riemer AB.
Steinbach A, Riemer AB.
Steinbach A, Winter J, Reuschenbach M, Blatnik R, Klevenz A, Bertrand M, Hoppe S, von Knebel Doeberitz M, Grabowska AK, Riemer AB.