Dr. Claudia Hülpüsch

During her bachelor's program at Hochschule Bremen, in cooperation with CSIRO, Brisbane, Claudia Hülpüsch became fascinated by the fact that microbes and host cells communicate. Consequently, she did her master's thesis at the Technical University Munich at the Chair of Prof. Haller, focusing on the influence of Coriobacteriaceae on the host lipid metabolism. Thereafter, she successfully completed her PhD at the Chair of Environmental Medicine, Technical University Munich in Augsburg on the topic of environmental influences on the skin microbiome.

The skin is a protective barrier between “human” and “environment” and consists of a physical, chemical and microbial part which are closely connected. In line, skin diseases as atopic eczema (atopic dermatitis, AD) are often associated with a dysbiosis in the skin microbiome. The interest of the group is to further investigate the role of the skin microbiome and its metabolites in the context of atopic diseases, addressing several questions. Do environmental factors influence the skin microbiome? Is it possible to actively change it - and if yes, does it have a positive influence on the skin? Additionally, the group is looking for biomarkers for disease status and the prediction of disease progression.

To do so, human studies are conducted in cooperation with the study center. Within the studies, bio samples as microbiome swabs, metabolome lavages, and biopsies for transcriptomics and proteomics, are collected. The multi-omics data is connected to the clinical picture of the disease by correlation to skin barrier integrity measures and other disease-specific markers to identify microbe-host-environment interactions. To validate the in vivo findings, bacterial isolates are characterized further in the lab, considering different environmental aspects (e.g., pH, oxygen saturation). Furthermore, the group strives to improve sampling, lab, and bioinformatic workflows for generating high-quality data, which is a prerequisite to draw correct biological conclusions.

Concluding, the aim of the group is to go one step further in understanding the host-microbe-environment interaction to pave the way towards personalized medicine.