The main scientific objective of the research group is to contribute to the understanding of the complex interactions between the human lung mucosa and the environment, both in a healthy state and in disease. A particular focus is on signalling pathways and networks of C-lectins and CEACAM receptors. In addition to bacteria, the research group also focuses on fungi as commensals and potential pathogens of the human lung.

Since February 2020, the research group has been able to acquire an Illumina sequencer of the latest generation. Now multigene panel analyses, whole exome analyses and whole genome analyses can be performed efficiently. In combination with 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing, it is now also possible to sequence the entire genome of a microbial population with high resolution and to integrate analyses on functional aspects of the microbiome into the research work.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Hortense Slevogt
Albert-Einstein-Str. 10
07745 Jena

The Host Septomics Research Group for Infection and Microbiome Research is part of the interfaculty Centre for Innovation Competence (ZIK) Septomics.

Host Septomics Group

Research projects

Early Bacterial Colonization in Newborns

Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Hortense Slevogt
BMBF (InfectControl2020) 2016 - 2020

In this project, we investigated the gut-, the oral-, and the skin-microbiota of neonates within the first 72 h after birth using metagenetic sequencing approaches. The taxonomic analysis of the newborn samples revealed significant microbiota changes during the first 72 h after birth, showing a clear site-specific colonization pattern in this very early time frame. In addition, we detected a substantial acquisition of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) during postpartum hospitalization, with a very high incidence of macrolide resistance determinants and mecA detection across different body sites of the newborns. This study highlights the importance of antibiotic resistance determinant dissemination in neonates during hospitalization, and the need to investigate the implication of the mothers and the hospital environment as potential sources of ARGs (Klassert et al., 2020).

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CEACAM receptor ligation enhances Candida albicans-induced cytokine production of human neutrophils

Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Hortense Slevogt
DFG (TRR 124) 2017 - 2021

This project within the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio 124 – FungiNet (A5) characterized the effect of the antibody-ligation of CEACAM1, CEACAM3 and CEACAM6, respectively, on human neutrophil responses to C. albicans. We found that the ligation of all three receptors increased the release of CXCL8, IL-6 and IL-1b in an antibody-specific manner. CEACAM6 ligation also increased the C. albicans-induced apoptosis of the neutrophils that, like the de novo synthesis of cytokines, was predicted by network analysis of transcriptional responses (Klaile et al., 2019).

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Selected publications

Cho SX, Rudloff I, Lao JC, Pang MA, Goldberg R, Bui CB, McLean CA, Stock M, Klassert TE, Slevogt H, Mangan NE, Cheng W, Fischer D, Gfroerer S, Sandhu MK, Ngo D, Bujotzek A, Lariviere L, Schumacher F, Tiefenthaler G, Beker F, Collins C, Kamlin COF, König K, Malhotra A, Tan K, Theda C, Veldman A, Ellisdon AM, Whisstock JC, Berger PJ, Nold-Petry CA, Nold MF. (2020) Characterization of the pathoimmunology of necrotizing enterocolitis reveals novel therapeutic opportunities. Nat Commun. 13;11:5794. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19400-w.
Zubiría-Barrera C, Stock M, Neubert R, Vester A, Kulle A, Schneegans A, Leistner R, Gastmeier P, Slevogt H, Klassert TE (2020) A simple sequence-based filtering method for the removal of contaminants in low-biomass 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing approaches. J Microbiol MethodsActions;106060. doi: 10.1016/j.mimet.2020.106060.
Klassert TE, Zubiria-Barrera C, Kankel S, Stock M, Neubert R, Lorenzo-Diaz F, Doehring N, Driesch D, Fischer D, Slevogt H (2020) Early bacterial colonization and antibiotic resistance gene acquisition in newborns. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 10:332. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.00332.
Machata S, Müller MM, Lehmann R, Sieber P, Panagiotou G, Carvalho A, Cunha C, Lagrou K, Maertens J, Slevogt H, Jacobsen ID (2020) Proteome analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluids reveals host and fungal proteins highly expressed during invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in mice and humans. Virulence 11(1):1337-1351. doi: 10.1080/21505594.2020.1824960.
Klaile E, Müller MM, Zubiría-Barrera C, Brehme S, Klassert TE, Stock M, Durotin A, Nguyen TD, Feer S, Singer BB, Zipfel PF, Rudolphi S, Jacobsen ID, Slevogt H (2019) Unaltered Fungal Burden and Lethality in Human CEACAM1-Transgenic Mice During Candida albicans Dissemination and Systemic Infection. Front Microbiol. 10:2703, doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.02703. eCollection 2019.

Outstanding achievements

Since 2019, Prof. Slevogt has been an appointed member of the Antiinfective, Resistance and Therapy (ART) Commission of the Robert Koch Institute.
In 2019, Prof. Slevogt was a member of the programme committee for the joint annual meeting of the German Society for Infectious Diseases (DGI) and the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), "Infectious Diseases: Global Challenges and Future Strategies", Bad Nauheim.
Since 2019, Prof. Slevogt has been a member of the Editorial Board of the journal "Respiratory Research" (BMC, Springer).
In 2019, Prof. Slevogt was re-elected to the Advisory Board of the German Society for Infectiology (DGI).