'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Palak Trivedi
2025-02-19 12:30 - 14:00 (Europe/Berlin) | online
On Wednesday, 19.02.2025 at 12:30, Ass.-Prof. Dr. Palak Trivedi from the University of Birmingham will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends’ seminar.
His talk will be entitled: “Gut-Liver Axis in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis”.

Dr. Trivedi is a Clinician Scientist in the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), based at the University of Birmingham. Dr. Trivedi is a Consultant Hepatologist who has devoted his clinical and research career to studying immune-mediated and chronic cholestatic liver disease, specifically primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC).
Palak is chief investigator for the UK-PSC consortium, and was elected chair of the British Association for Study of the Liver Special Interest Group (BASL SIG) for immune-mediated liver disease in 2018.

Source: Dr Palak Trivedi – Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy – University of Birmingham

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Benjamin Ruf
2025-03-12 16:00 - 17:30 | online
On Wednesday, 12.03.2025 at 16:00, Benjamin Ruf, M.D., will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends‘ seminar.
Benjamin Ruf is a physician-scientist focusing on tumor immunology and immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancers. Benjamin received his M.D. from studies at the University of Tübingen, King’s College London and the University of Aberdeen. After graduation, he started residency in Internal Medicine with a focus on Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Gastro-Oncology at the University Hospital in Tübingen, Germany. Between 2019-2023 he did postdoctoral studies at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) with Dr. Tim Greten. Back in Tübingen, he works as an independent group leader at the M3 Research Institute and the University Hospital Tübingen and tries to better understand how we can use our body’s own immune system to fight cancers.
In his lab, he aims to expand our knowledge of the composition, phenotype, and organization of the tumor immune microenvironment (TiME) in gastrointestinal cancers with the goal to ultimately improve patient care. His research is located at an exciting interface between basic immunology, translational and clinical research. He uses clinical data to guide our research focus, he uses systems biology approaches to build hypotheses and then test these hypotheses in functional in vivo and in vitro models. He employs complementary experimental strategies to investigate the TiME in patient samples including scRNA-seq, spatial proteomics and high-dimensional spectral cytometry. Using these approaches, he studies how reciprocal communications between the innate and adaptive immune system, stomal cells and cancer cells are altered in response to tumor initiation, progression, and response to (immuno)therapy. One focus of his research program is to investigate the role of tissue-resident lymphocytes, in particular mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, in the context of cancer. Beyond that and following up on previous studies, he continues to explore how the liver as a site of primary tumorigenesis or metastasis represents a unique tumor microenvironment that requires special consideration.
His talk will be entitled:
“Targeting Mucosal-Associated Invariant T (MAIT) cells in liver cancer – using functional in situ phenotyping to guide precision immunotherapy”.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Lindsey Devisscher
2025-03-19 12:30 - 14:00 | online
On Wednesday, 19.03.2025 at 12:30, Prof. Lindsey Devisscher will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends‘ seminar.
Prof. Lindsey Devisscher is PI of the Gut-Liver ImmunoPharmacology (GLIPh) unit at the Dpt. of Basic and Applied Medical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Ghent. She has a master’s degree in veterinary medicine, performed her PhD on inflammatory bowel diseases and continued her scientific career as postdoctoral scientist with focus on liver disease. She was appointed professor in 2018 and founded the GLIPh unit, which further builds on her expertise and focusses on the pathogenesis and new therapeutic options for gastro-intestinal related liver diseases with emphasize on the gut-liver axis and innate immunity. Prof. Devisscher is highly experienced in animal models for gut and liver pathology, is chair of the Animal Ethics Committee of her faculty and attaches great importance to the translational value of experimental models. In line, her research has a fundamental and translational approach by using relevant animal models, and linking results to data retrieved from human patient samples. Within her University, she is team lead of the Research Task Force within her department, member of the Commission for Scientific Research of her faculty and leader of the Core Facility ‘Histology’ of her faculty. In addition to her scientific and institutional leadership, she lectures pharmacology to medical, biomedical and pharmacy students and gastro-intestinal physiology to medical students which keeps her up to date within the field of disease pathogenesis and therapy.
Her talk will be entitled:
“Gut-liver axis and immune dysregulation in PSC”.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Ellen Blaak
2025-04-03 12:30 - 14:00 | in presence at UKA, lecture hall 6
On Thursday, 03.04.2025 at 12:30, Prof. Dr. Ellen Blaak from the University of Maastricht will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends’ seminar.
Her talk will be entitled: “Metabolic phenotypes towards type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic risk: a precision nutrition approach”.

Prof. Ellen Blaak is Professor in Human Biology and is Chair of the Department of Human Biology. Her research focuses on the interorgan metabolic cross-talk (gut-adipose tissue-muscle metabolism) in the aetiology of obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus (>230 publ) as well as the impact of nutritional or lifestyle intervention

Source: Prof Dr Ir E.E. Blaak – Prof Dr Ir E.E. Blaak – Maastricht University

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Charlotte Scott
2025-05-07 12:30 - 14:00 | Lecture Hall 6, UK Aachen, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen, 52074
On Wednesday, 07.05.2025 at 12:30, Charlotte Scott from VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research, Belgium, will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends‘ seminar.
The title of her presentation is:
“Investigating hepatic macrophage heterogeneity in health and disease“

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Matthew Mangan
2025-05-21 12:30 - 14:00 | Lecture Hall 6, UK Aachen, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen, 52074
On Wednesday, 21.05.2025 at 12:30, Matthew Mangan from the Institute of Medical Microbiology at Cologne University Hospital will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends‘ seminar.
The title of his presentation is:
“Cytosolic sodium accumulation is a common danger signal triggering endocytic dysfunction and NLRP3 inflammasome activation“

Detecting noxious molecules within the endo/lysosomal system is essential for maintaining cellular integrity. Here, we identify acute cytosolic sodium accumulation as a key trigger for NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Large clostridial toxins, as well as monosodium urate and silica crystals, rapidly elevate cytosolic sodium by promoting its release from the endo/lysosomal system, triggering potassium efflux and subsequent extracellular sodium influx. This rise in cytosolic sodium disrupts endocytic trafficking by collapsing the sodium gradient across endosomal membranes, leading to peripheral redistribution and activation of NLRP3. Importantly, non-particulate stimuli, including nigericin, also activate NLRP3 by this sodium-dependent mechanism. These findings position cytosolic sodium as a key downstream effector of potassium efflux and a central signal for NLRP3 activation across diverse stimuli.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with David Berry
2025-06-25 12:30 - 14:00 | lecture hall 1, UKA, UKA, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen, 52074, Germany
On Wednesday, 25.06.2025 at 12:30, David Berry will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends‘ seminar.
More information will follow soon.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Laura J. Pallett
2025-07-02 12:30 - 14:00 | lecture hall 1, UKA, UKA, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen, 52074, Germany
On Wednesday, 02.07.2025 at 12:30, Associate Professor Laura J. Pallett will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends‘ seminar.
More information will follow soon.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Detlef Schuppan
2025-07-09 12:30 - 14:00 | lecture hall 1, UKA, UKA, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen, 52074, Germany
On Wednesday, 09.07.2025 at 12:30, Professor Dr. Dr. Detlef Schuppan will be the speaker of our ‘Gut, Liver and Friends‘ seminar.
More information will follow soon.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Martin Kriegel
2025-10-29 12:30 - 14:00 | in presence at UKA, lecture hall 1, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen
Speaker: Prof. Martin Kriegel, University of Münster
Title: Gut microbiota translocation and lymphocyte migration in autoimmunity
Date: 29.10.2025, 12:30 pm
Venue: lecture hall 1 (UKA).

Martin Kriegel is Head of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology and Head of the Department of Translational Rheumatology and Immunology at the University of Münster and in addition Adjunct Associate Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University. His laboratory investigates host-microbiota interactions in autoimmune diseases by combining human microbiome studies with gnotobiotic models and in vitro approaches, including organoids.
Martin Kriegel has published numerous influential publications on the role of the microbiome in autoimmunity. His work encompasses both fundamental mechanisms of microbial immune modulation and translational studies on diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Mercedes Gomez de Agüero Tamargo
2025-11-19 12:30 - 14:00 | ExMI seminar room, Forckenbeckstr. 55, Aachen, 52074
Speaker: Mercedes Gomez de Agüero Tamargo, University of Würzburg
Title: Microbial metabolites in the development and maintenance of barrier integrity and tissue healing
Date: 19.11.2025, 12:30 pm
Venue: seminar room at the Institute of Experimental Molecular Imaging (ExMI)

Mercedes Gomez de Agüero Tamargo is group leader at the Institute of Systems Immunology at Würzburg University. The Gomez de Agüero Lab studies host-microbial interactions. The focus of the lab is to understand the crosstalk of the microbiota and its products with host cellular networks. Specifically, the team tries to elucidate which and how specific molecules mediate the effects of the microbiota on a mechanistic level.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Espen Melum
2025-12-10 15:00 - 16:00 | hybrid
Speaker: Prof. Espen Melum
Title: Bile duct disease – discovery using sequencing and understanding using chip
Date: 10.12.2025, 15:00 pm
Venue: on site in Berlin, online via Zoom

In this talk I will first go through how novel pathways for inflammation in the bile ducts can be uncovered using single-cell/nuclei and spatial sequencing in mouse models and human material. Then I will discuss how organ-on-a-chip technology can potentially be used to understand these and other pathways and also serve as a platform for disease modeling.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Matteo Iannacone
2025-12-17 12:30 - 13:45
Speaker: Prof. Matteo Iannacone
Title: Immune Surveillance of the Liver
Date: 17.12.2025, 12:30 pm
Venue: on site in Aachen, online via Zoom

Matteo Iannacone obtained his M.D. degree from the University of Milan, Italy, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy. He trained as a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA and at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. He is currently the Director of the Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases, Professor of Pathology, and Head of the Dynamics of Immune Responses laboratory at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute and University in Milan, Italy.
By combining cutting-edge in vivo imaging techniques, single-cell technologies and advanced animal models, Matteo has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of adaptive immune responses against pathogens and tumors. His work has been published in the most important scientific journals (including Nature, Cell, Science, Immunity, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology) and he holds 14 international patents. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Armenise-Harvard Foundation Career Development Award, an ERC Starting Grant, the Young Investigator Award from the European Association for the Study of the Liver, the EMBO Young Investigator Award, an ERC Consolidator Grant, the Chiara D’Onofrio Award, two ERC Proof of Concept Grants, an ERC Advanced Grant. He is an elected member of the Henry Kunkel Society and of EMBO. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Immunology and an editorial board member for Science Immunology, Journal of Experimental Medicine, The EMBO Journal, Trends in Immunology, Current Opinion in Immunology, hLife, Virology, Review Commons and Faculty Opinion. He has published more than 125 papers that received more than 15,000 citations with an H-index of 59.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Mikael Sellin
2026-02-04 12:30 - 13:45 | in presence at UKA, lecture hall 1, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen
Speaker: Mikael Sellin, University of Uppsala, Sweden
Title: Gut Bacterial Infection Mechanisms Resolved by Human Organoid Modelling
Date: 04..02.2026, 12:30 pm
Venue: UKA, lecture hall 1

Bacterial gut infections represent a globally prevalent cause of disease. Traditionally, the bacterium – host cell interactions that underlie disease development have been studied under simplistic experimental settings, often using tumor-derived cell lines as a proxy for the gut tissue. The Sellin laboratory strives to explain the mechanisms that drive invasive gut bacterial disease – elicited by e.g. Salmonella, Shigella and related enteropathogens – under more physiologically accurate ex vivo conditions. The group combines bacterial genetics and live-cell imaging with methods to culture and conduct infection experiments in organoid models (enteroids and colonoids) of the intestinal tract. In the seminar, Mikael will exemplify how this approach enables high-resolution mapping of how enterobacteria attack and spread within the gut epithelium, and how host responses and therapies may counter this onslaught.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Christoph Schramm
2026-05-06 12:30 - 13:45 | in presence at UKA, lecture hall 1, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen
Speaker: Christoph Schramm, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
Title: T cells as therapeutic targets in autoimmune liver disease
Date: 06..05.2026, 12:30 pm
Venue: UKA, lecture hall 1

Christoph Schramm works at the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology with Sections Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg – Eppendorf and leads the Martin Zeitz Centre for Rare Diseases. He is an expert in the field of autoimmune liver diseases and immune regulation. Current projects focus on primary sclerosing cholangitis and autoimmune hepatitis.

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Markus Kleinwietfeld
2026-05-20 12:30 - 13:45 | in presence at UKA, lecture hall 1, Pauwelsstr. 30, Aachen
Speaker: Markus Kleinewietfeld, University of Hasselt, Belgium
Title: Environmental Modulation of Immunity in Health and Disease
Date: 20.05.2026, 12:30 pm
Venue: UKA, lecture hall 1
“Meet the Speaker” session for early career scientists after the seminar

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Schalk van der Merwe
2026-09-02 12:30 - 13:45 | UKA, Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Speaker: Schalk van der Merwe, University Hospital Leuven
Title: Macrophages as guardians of the gut liver axis in cirrhosis
Date: 02.09.2026, 12:30 pm
Venue: on site at UKA, lecture hall to be announced

'Gut, Liver and Friends' Seminar with Immo Prinz
2026-09-09 12:30 - 13:45 | UKA, Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Speaker: Prof. Immo Prinz
Title: TBA
Date: 09.09.2026, 12:30 pm
Venue: on site at UKA, lecture hall to be announced
