Burgstaller Lab

Immunotherapeutic Technologies

In the group of Immunotherapeutic Technologies we have a strong focus on establishing and applying advanced tools leading to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics, and thereby efficiently tackling chronic lung diseases.

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About our Research

In the group of Immunotherapeutic Technologies we have a strong focus on establishing and applying advanced tools leading to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics, and thereby efficiently tackling chronic lung diseases.

Pulmonary fibrosis, and especially Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), is a progressing and finally deadly disease. The underlying pathophysiology is deranged wound-healing due to repetitive injury of the lung parenchyma, tissue scarring and abnormal extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition, largely attributed to (myo)fibroblasts as effector cells. Currently existing pharmacotherapy do not stop disease progression, leaving lung transplantation as the only clinical treatment. Thus, there is a high medical need for novel antifibrotic therapeutics.

lhi-burgstaller-comparison-healthy-ipf-lung

We seek to establish and apply advanced tools which are based on human disease models. With this toolbox we aim to discover and develop novel therapeutics that inhibit progression of fatal fibrotic lung diseases and ultimately secure survival of the patients. Using predictive human disease models already in early preclinical investigations in combination with phenotypic screening strategies, are the driving force for accelerating translation of novel first-in-class small-molecule drugs into the clinic.

Picture left: In-vitro fibrosis model - Lung myofibroblasts in 2D cell culture

Downstream of the drug discovery and development pipeline, we aim to understand and investigate the drugs’ mode-of-action, as well as to identify novel molecular targets and signaling pathways. For all this we work highly multidisciplinary and collaborative. Our toolbox of applied technologies includes assay development, phenotypic high-throughput drug-screening, deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) methods, imageomics, medicinal chemistry, advanced 3D and 4D imaging techniques, human ex-vivo disease models as precision cut lung slices (PCLS), mouse disease models, lung organoids, bioengineering and system biology approaches.