Wolfgang WENINGER, MD

WeningerProfessor and Chair, Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

Education:
M.D. Degree: University of Vienna
Postdoctoral Training: Harvard Medical School

Research Interests:
• Deciphering mechanisms underlying cutaneous immune responses, including atopic dermatitis and allergies
• Live imaging of immune responses in disease models
• Single cell sequencing technologies for studying skin diseases
• Discovery of new infectious agents in skin diseases

Biography:
Wolfgang Weninger is a Professor of Dermatology and Chair of the Department of Dermatology at the Medical University of Vienna. He has been working in the field of skin inflammation and immunology for more than 25 years. He has developed innovative imaging models, using for example multiphoton microscopy, that allow for tracking the behaviour of immune cells in the skin and other organs in real time at high resolution. Using this and other technologies, he has discovered several cutaneous immune cell subsets, including group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2). The latter are critical players in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis and other skin allergies. He has been awarded several prestigious national and international awards. He has published more than 170 scientific highly-cited publications, reviews and book chapters and has supervised many students and postdoctoral fellows in his laboratory.

Proposed PhD research projects:
1) Dissection of immune phenomena in atopic/contact dermatitis using real time imaging in the skin
2) Understanding T cell responses in human atopic/contact dermatitis
3) Dissection of the immune infiltrate in human atopic/contact using single cell technologies

Selected publications:

  1. Roediger B, Lee Q, Tikoo S, Cobbin JCA, Henderson JM, Jormakka M, O’Rourke MB, Padula MP, Pinello N, Henry M, Wynne M, Santagostino SF, Brayton CF, Rasmussen L, Lisowski L, Tay SS, Harris DC, Bertram JF, Dowling JP, Bertolino P, Lai JH, Wu W, Bachovin WW, Wong JJL, Gorrell MD, Shaban B, Holmes EC, Jolly JJ, Monette S, Weninger W. An atypical parvovirus driving chronic tubulointerstitial nephropathy and kidney fibrosis. Cell, 175:530-43, 2018
    This paper describes the discovery of a novel virus causing fibrotic kidney disease.
  2. Kinjyo I, Qin J, Wellard CJ, Ritchie W, Mrass P, Tomura M, Kanagawa O, Miyawaki A, Hodgkin PD, Weninger W. Real-time tracking of cell cycle progression during CD8+ effector and memory T cell differentiation. Nat Communications, 6:6301 doi: 10.1038/ncomms7301, 2015 (71 citations; IF=11.9)
    This paper describes a novel differentiation pathway of central memory T cells.
  3. Roediger B, Kyle R, Szun SS, Mitchell AJ, Bolton HA, Guy TV, Tan SY, Forbes-Blom E, Tong PL, Koller Y, Shklovskaye E, Iwashimi M, McCoy KD, Le Gros G, Fazekas de St. Groth B, Weninger, W. Interleukin 2 is a critical regulator of group 2 innate lymphoid cell function during pulmonary inflammation. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 36:1653-63, 2015
    The paper uncovers the pathogenesis of an enigmatic lung disease in mice.
  4. Weninger W, Biro M, Jain R. Leukocyte migration in the interstitial space of non-lymphoid organs. Nat Rev Immunol, 14:232-46, 2014
    This peer-reviewed article provides a state-of-the-art overview of our current knowledge of the mechanisms underlying interstitial leukocyte migration.
  5. Abtin A, Jain R, Mitchell AJ, Roediger B, Brzoska AJ, Tikoo S, Cheng Q, Ng LG, Cavanagh LL, von Andrian UH, Hickey MJ, Firth N, Weninger W. Perivascular macrophages mediate neutrophil recruitment during bacterial skin infection. Nat Immunol, 15:45-53, 2014
    The paper describes a novel macrophage population in the skin that regulate the inflammatory response.
  6. Roediger B, Kyle R, Yip KH, Sumaria N, Guy TV, Kim BS, Mitchell AJ, Tay SS, Jain R, Forbes-Blom E, Chen X, Tong PL, Bolton HA, Artis D, Paul WE, Fazekas de St Groth B, Grimbaldeston MA, Le Gros G, Weninger W. Cutaneous immunosurveillance and regulation of inflammation by group 2 innate lymphoid cells. Nat Immunol, 14:564-73, 2013
    The paper describes a novel innate lymphoid cell population in the skin that regulates type 2 immunity.
  7. Mrass P, Kinjyo I, Ng LG, Reiner SL, Puré E, Weninger W. CD44 mediates successful interstitial navigation by killer T cells and enables efficient antitumor immunity. Immunity, 29:971-85, 2008
    This paper describes a novel effect of CD44 in intratumoral T cell migration.
  8. Chang JT, VR Palanivel, I Kinjyo, F Schambach, AM Intlekofer, VP Zediak, A Banerjee, SA Longworth, KE Vinup, P Mrass, J Oliaro, N Killeen, JS Orange, SM Russell, W Weninger, and SL Reiner. Asymmetric T lymphocyte division in the initiation of adaptive immune responses. Science 2007, 315:1687-91
    The paper demonstrates that effector and memory T cell fate is already determined during the first division. Note: This paper was selected by Science as one of the 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2007.