Dr. Rer. Nat. Maria Szente-Pasztoi

Maria Szente-Pasztoi is an immunologist studying the contribution of tissue-resident stromal cells to intestinal tolerance and immunity with the focus on type 2 immunity including food allergy and parasite infections. Her approaches include multicolour flow cytometry, low input RNA-Seq, scRNA-Seq, genetically modified mouse models and in vitro culture assays such as organoid cultures.

Maria obtained her Master's degree in Biology and finished her PhD in Immunology.

After her PhD and postdoc period at the Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, she joined the lab of Prof Huehn at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig. In the framework of her Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, she has found that stromal cells in gut draining mesenteric lymph nodes possess tolerogenic properties by promoting peripheral regulatory T cell induction and tolerogenic features of dendritic cells. Later she joined the lab of Dr Ohnmacht and started to investigate the physiological and immunomodulatory functions of tissue-resident stromal cells. Currently, she is working in the framework of her research grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) where she aims to understand the responsiveness of intestinal stromal cells to diverse inflammatory cues, and what kind of tissue niches are provided by them for local immune cells.