Christina Klasen, Dipl.-Biol., doctoral student at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology, together with colleagues from the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology in Aachen as well as colleagues from Aachen, Freiburg, Yale/USA, and Rehovot/Israel identified a novel role for the inflammatory cytokine/chemokine MIF in B cell migration and uncovered a previously unrecognized ZAP-70-mediated signaling mechanism that is involved in this process. This work was just published in the renowned American immunology journal "<link http: www.jimmunol.org _blank external-link-new-window externen link in neuem>Journal of Immunology" (<link http: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pubmed>
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24760155
) and was highlighted in the "<link file:8676 download herunterladen der datei>In this Issue" section of the journal. The work indicates for the first time that the potent recruitment properties that MIF has been shown to have on monocytes and T cells in atherosclerotic lesion formation could extend to B cells as well, and intriguingly implies a cooperative involvement of the MIF receptors CD74 and CXCR4. Christina Klasen performs her PhD thesis in the Laboratory of Cytokine Receptor Complexes and Signalling (Lab head Dr. Omar El Bounkari) of the institute.Her thesis is supervised by Dr. El Bounkari and Prof. Jürgen Bernhagen. Christina Klasen also has been a PhD student in DFG graduate school <link https: www.rwth-aachen.de go id ult _blank external-link-new-window externen link in neuem>GRK1508/EuCAR.
