Cell Biology and Immunology Group
The vision of the Cell Biology and Immunology Group (CBI) is to generate fundamental knowledge on the immune system of vertebrates. We apply this knowledge to the development of dietary-based immunomodulation, immunotherapies and vaccination strategies in order to improve health of animals and humans.
Chair holder
News
Research themes
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(Food) allergy
The prevalence of allergies has increased substantially over the last decades. Up to 30% of the population now has an IgE-mediated allergy. These allergies can manifest themselves as food allergy, hayfever, eczema or asthma. At CBI we investigate the immunological mechanisms of allergy, the effect of food processing on food allergy, as well as cross-reactive allergies between known allergens and (novel) food proteins
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Immunomodulation by food and feed
In the research theme immune modulation by food and feed, we have several projects that focus on the immunomodulatory effects of food and feed-components, as well as mucosal immunology projects, that focus on the immune function in the gastrointestinal and respiratory tract.
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Veterinary immunology
Veterinary immunology is the cornerstone of animal health and welfare, food security, and public health. Within the Cell Biology and Immunology group we study the function of immune cells in livestock and companion animals. A thorough understanding of these fundamental immune processes forms the basis for the development of novel immune mediated strategies to improve animal health and welfare. These strategies include modern vaccine approaches, including Virus Like Particles and mRNA vaccines, immune therapies to cure immune related diseases, and modulation of the immune system in young animals via feed interventions or in ovo vaccination.
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Immune cell dynamics
Customisable nanoparticles show great potential for imaging and advanced personalised medicine applications, such as cell therapies, immunomodulation, and cell tracking studies using multimodal imaging. Prof. Mangala Srinivas’ group works with a range of imaging modalities, incl. fluorescence, MRI, PET, SPECT, ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging in different disease models, particularly cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
Education
In all teaching organised by CBI, mucosal and comparative immunology approaches play a large role. This illustrates the importance of differences in the immune system among animal species and humans during health and disease.
Recent publications
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Citrus pectins impact the function of chicken macrophages
International Journal of Biological Macromolecules (2025), Volume: 286 - ISSN 0141-8130 -
Associating structural characteristics to immunomodulating properties of carrot rhamnogalacturonan-I fractions
Carbohydrate Polymers (2025), Volume: 347 - ISSN 0144-8617