“The development of new therapeutic approaches to treat lower respiratory tract infections is urgently needed,” says Nico Lachmann. Since September 2020, he holds a professorship for the control of respiratory tract infections financed by RESIST and works at the Clinic for Paediatric Pneumology, Allergology and Neonatology, Hannover Medical School (MHH).
Professor Lachmann investigates the role of macrophages in the development and control of infections. For example, his team is conducting detailed research into how these scavenger cells of the immune system are formed in the lungs and what function they have in bacterial lung infections. Different types of stem cells are used in this research.
In order to gain new insights into the development of lung diseases and derive new therapies, Professor Lachmann’s team is also establishing different disease models in the laboratory – In close cooperation with partners at the MHH, such as Professor Dr. Burkhard Tümmler, Professor Dr. Dorothee Viemann and Professor Dr. Ulrich Kalinke from TWINCORE, but also with international partners such as Professor Dr. Jean-Laurent Casanova from Paris.
The scavenger cells in the lungs can be attenuated – for example due to a genetic defect, a misdirected pulmonary immunity or an infection that has already occurred. “One of our latest approaches is to replace the weakened macrophages with healthy macrophages from the laboratory, which then provide protection against bacteria, i.a. mycobacteria, and viruses,” Professor Lachmann describes.
Nico Lachmann studied biomedicine at the MHH and Yale University (School of Medicine) and received his doctorate from the MHH in 2012. He then did research at the MHH, the Max Planck Institute for Biomedicine in Münster and the Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati.