As part of the reseach group of Hans Lassmann my main research focus is the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases of the nervous system. In this large area of research my special interest is the role of cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Cytotoxic T cell mediated tissue damage in the nervous system is studied in various human inflammatory diseases. One of these diseases studied is Rasmussen encephalitis, a epileptic disorder of unknown etiology mostly found in children. These pathological studies of Rasmussen encephalitis are performed in close cooperation with Dr. Christian Bien from the department of epileptology in Bonn. Cytotoxic T cell mediated tissue damage furthermore is studied in paraneoplastic encephalitis and virus-induced encephalitis. The study of T cell cytotoxicity in human diseases is complemented by the study of various models of autoimmune or virus induced inflammatory CNS disease. These studies are performed in long-term collaboration with the research groups of Dr. Roland Liblau (Purpan University Hospital) in Toulouse, France, of Dr. Katerina Akassoglou, (University of California) San Diego, USA and Dr. Bert ´t Hart (BPRC) in Rijswijk, The Netherlands.
