PD Dr. Sogkas participates in research projects A2 and B2.

My Research Interest in RESIST

My research focus in RESIST is the identification of the common pathomechanisms of immunodeficiency and autoimmunity in inborn errors of immunity (IEI). The discovery of monogenic disorders, characterized by both autoimmunity and susceptibility to infections, provided novel insight into the common pathophysiological origins of immunodeficiency and immune dysregulation. Investigation of the crossroads of autoimmunity and immunodeficiency, starting from its genetic origins, may result in the identification of therapeutic targets to revert immune dysregulation without adding to an immune suppressive burden on patients with immunodeficiency.

In my previous work, I have identified monogenic IEI both in patients with immunodeficiency but also in patients with sheer rheumatic disorders. The latter expanded the clinical relevance of IEI in the field of Rheumatology and suggested the therapeutic relevance of timely genetic diagnosis.

PD Dr. Sogkas

PD Dr. Sogkas – Curriculum Vitae

Current Position

  • Head of the immunodeficiency outpatient clinic for adult patients, Clinic for Rheumatology and Immunology, Hannover Medical University, Germany (Director: Prof. T. Witte)

  • Research-Scientist, working group ‘Inborn Errors of Immunity’, Clinic for Immunology and Rheumatology, Hannover Medical University, Germany

Undergraduate and Postgraduate Training

  • 2007 Degree in Medicine (MD), Larissa Medical School, Division of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Greece

  • 2007 – 2008 Clinical research fellowship, Lab of Physiology, Division of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, Greece (Supervisor: Prof. E. Paraskeva)

  • 2008 – 2009 MSc in Integrated Immunology, Division of Health Sciences, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, UK (Supervisors: Prof. H. Chapel, Prof. A. Simmons)

  • 2009 – 2013 PhD in Immunology, Clinic for Immunology and Rheumatology, Hannover Medical University, Germany (Supervisor: Prof. J.E. Gessner)

  • 2013 – 2014 Postdoc, AG Gessner, Clinic for Immunology and Rheumatology, Hannover Medical University, Germany (Supervisor: Prof. J.E. Gessner)

  • 9/2019 Certification as Consultant Immunologist (with diagnostic competence) of the German Society of Immunology (DGfI)

  • 4/2019 Basic and advanced course in Good Clinical Practice (GCP) (provided by Winicker Norimed)

  • 9/2019 Certification as Consultant Immunologist (with diagnostic competence) of the German Society of Immunology (DGfI)

  • 11/2019 Basic course in Teaching (provided by the ‘Bildungsakademie’ of Hannover Medical University)

  • 2014 – 2021 Resident, Clinic for Rheumatology and Immunology, Hannover Medical University, Germany (Director: Prof. T. Witte)

  • 2021 Rheumatology Training Academy

  • 2024 Habilitation in Rheumatology, MHH

Awards and Prizes

  • 2001 – 2002 “Deligiorgi Brothers” Foundation Award – University of Thessaly

  • 2001 – 2004 Award & Scholarship – State Scholarships Foundation (IKY)

  • 2006 Second place at the 10th Olympiad of Medical Knowledge
    (12th Scientific Convention of Medical Students)

  • 2008 – 2009 “Bodossaki” Foundation Scholarship

  • 2009 – 2010 Hannover Biomedical Research School: PhD Scholarship

  • 2012 European Federation of Immunological Societies Travel grant – European Congress of Immunology
    (Glasgow, UK)

  • 2018 – 2020 Member of the ‘Young Scientist Academy’ – Hannover Medical University

Recommended Links

For further information about Dr Sogkas scientific work please check the following links:

10 Selected Publications

Variants in IGLL1 cause a broad phenotype from agammaglobulinemia to transient hypogammaglobulinemia. Soomann M, Bily V, Elgizouli M, Kraemer D, Akgül G, von Bernuth H, Bloomfield M, Brodszki N, Candotti F, Förster-Waldl E, Freiberger T, Giżewska M, Klocperk A, Kölsch U, Nichols KE, Krüger R, Oak N, Pac M, Prader S, Schmiegelow K, Šedivá A, Sogkas G, Stittrich A, Stoltze UK, Theodoropoulou K, Wadt K, Wong M, Zeyda M, Pachlopnik Schmid J, Trück J.  J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2024:S0091-6749(24)00819-4.

Phenotypic and pathomechanistic overlap between tapasin and TAP deficiencies. Elsayed A, von Hardenberg S, Atschekzei F, Graalmann T, Jänke C, Witte T, Ringshausen FC, Sogkas G. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2024;154(4):1069-1075.

Non-apoptotic FAS signaling controls mTOR activation and extrafollicular maturation in human B cells. Staniek J, Kalina T, Andrieux G, Boerries M, Janowska I, Fuentes M, Díez P, Bakardjieva M, Stancikova J, Raabe J, Neumann J, Schwenk S, Arpesella L, Stuchly J, Benes V, García Valiente R, Fernández García J, Carsetti R, Mortari EP, Catala A, de la Calle O, Sogkas G, Neven B, Rieux-Laucat F, Magerus A, Neth O, Olbrich P, Voll RE, Alsina L, Allende LM, Gonzalez-Granado LI, Böhler C, Thiel J, Venhoff N, Lorenzetti R, Warnatz K, Unger S, Seidl M, Mielenz D, Schneider P, Ehl S, Rensing-Ehl A, Smulski CR, Rizzi M. Sci Immunol. 2024;9:eadj5948.

Autoantibodies against type I IFNs in humans with alternative NF-κB pathway deficiency. Le Voyer T, Parent AV, Liu X, Cederholm A, Gervais A, Rosain J, Nguyen T, Perez Lorenzo M, Rackaityte E, Rinchai D, Zhang P, Bizien L, Hancioglu G, Ghillani-Dalbin P, Charuel JL, Philippot Q, Gueye MS, Maglorius Renkilaraj MRL, Ogishi M, Soudée C, Migaud M, Rozenberg F, Momenilandi M, Riller Q, Imberti L, Delmonte OM, Müller G, Keller B, Orrego J, Franco Gallego WA, Rubin T, Emiroglu M, Parvaneh N, Eriksson D, Aranda-Guillen M, Berrios DI, Vong L, Katelaris CH, Mustillo P, Raedler J, Bohlen J, Bengi Celik J, Astudillo C, Winter S; NF-κB Consortium; COVID Human Genetic Effort; McLean C, Guffroy A, DeRisi JL, Yu D, Miller C, Feng Y, Guichard A, Béziat V, Bustamante J, Pan-Hammarström Q, Zhang Y, Rosen LB, Holland SM, Bosticardo M, Kenney H, Castagnoli R, Slade CA, Boztuğ K, Mahlaoui N, Latour S, Abraham RS, Lougaris V, Hauck F, Sediva A, Atschekzei F, Sogkas G, Poli MC, Slatter MA, Palterer B, Keller MD, Pinzon-Charry A, Sullivan A, Droney L, Suan D, Wong M, Kane A, Hu H, Ma C, Grombiříková H, Ciznar P, Dalal I, Aladjidi N, Hie M, Lazaro E, Franco J, Keles S, Malphettes M, Pasquet M, Maccari ME, Meinhardt A, Ikinciogullari A, Shahrooei M, Celmeli F, Frosk P, Goodnow CC, Gray PE, Belot A, Kuehn HS, Rosenzweig SD, Miyara M, Licciardi F, Servettaz A, Barlogis V, Le Guenno G, Herrmann VM, Kuijpers T, Ducoux G, Sarrot-Reynauld F, Schuetz C, Cunningham-Rundles C, Rieux-Laucat F, Tangye SG, Sobacchi C, Doffinger R, Warnatz K, Grimbacher B, Fieschi C, Berteloot L, Bryant VL, Trouillet Assant S, Su H, Neven B, Abel L, Zhang Q, Boisson B, Cobat A, Jouanguy E, Kampe O, Bastard P, Roifman CM, Landegren N, Notarangelo LD, Anderson MS, Casanova JL, Puel A. Nature. 2023;623(7988):803-813.

Human CARMIL2 deficiency underlies a broader immunological and clinical phenotype than CD28 deficiency. Lévy R, Gothe F, Momenilandi M, Magg T, Materna M, Peters P, Raedler J, Philippot Q, Rack-Hoch AL, Langlais D, Bourgey M, Lanz AL, Ogishi M, Rosain J, Martin E, Latour S, Vladikine N, Distefano M, Khan T, Rapaport F, Schulz MS, Holzer U, Fasth A, Sogkas G, Speckmann C, Troilo A, Bigley V, Roppelt A, Dinur-Schejter Y, Toker O, Bronken Martinsen KH, Sherkat R, Somekh I, Somech R, Shouval DS, Kühl JS, Ip W, McDermott EM, Cliffe L, Ozen A, Baris S, Rangarajan HG, Jouanguy E, Puel A, Bustamante J, Alyanakian MA, Fusaro M, Wang Y, Kong XF, Cobat A, Boutboul D, Castelle M, Aguilar C, Hermine O, Cheminant M, Suarez F, Yildiran A, Bousfiha A, Al-Mousa H, Alsohime F, Cagdas D, Abraham RS, Knutsen AP, Fevang B, Bhattad S, Kiykim A, Erman B, Arikoglu T, Unal E, Kumar A, Geier CB, Baumann U, Neven B; CARMIL2 Consortium, Rohlfs M, Walz C, Abel L, Malissen B, Marr N, Klein C, Casanova JL, Hauck F, Béziat V. J Exp Med. 2023;220(2):e20220275.

Monogenic Early-Onset Lymphoproliferation and Autoimmunity: The Natural History of STAT3 GOF Syndrome. Leiding JW, Vogel TP, Santarlas VGJ, Mhaskar R, Smith MR, Carisey A, Vargas-Hernandez A, Silva-Carmona M, Heeg M, Rensing-Ehl A, Neven B, Hadjadj J, Hambleton S, Leahy TR, Van Hagen M, Cunningham-Rundles C, Dutmer CM, Sharapova SO, Taskinen M, Chua I, Hague R, Klemann C, Kostyuchenko L, Morio T, Thatayatikom A, Ozen A, Scherbina A, Bauer CS, Flanagan SE, Gambineri E, Giovannini-Chami L, Heimall J, Sullivan KE, Allenspach E, Romberg N, Deane SG, Prince BT, Rose M, Bohnsack J, Mousallem T, Jesudas R, Dos Santos Vilela MM, O’Sullivan M, Schmid JP, Průhová Š, Rees M, Su H, Bahna S, Baris S, Bartnikas LM, Chang Berger A, Briggs TA, Brothers S, Bundy V, Chan AY, Chandrakasan S, Christiansen M, Cole T, Cook MC, Desai MM, Fischer U, Fulcher DA, Gallo S, Gauthier A, Gennery AR, Marques JG, Gottrand F, Grimbacher B, Grunebaum E, Haapaniemi E, Hämäläinen S, Heiskanen K, Heiskanen-Kosma T, Hoffman HM, Gonzalez-Granado LI, Guerreiro AL, Kainulainen L, Kumar A, Lawrence MG, Levin C, Martelius T, Neth O, Olbrich P, Palma A, Patel NC, Pozos T, Preece K, Lugo Reyes SO, Russell MA, Schejter Y, Seroogy C, Sinclair J, Skevofilax E, Suan D, Suegeorgz D, Szabolcs P, Velasco H, Warnatz K, Walkovich K, Worth A; STAT3 GOF Working Group, Seppänen MRJ, Torgerson TR, Sogkas G, Ehl S, Tangye SG, Cooper MA, Milner JD, Forbes Satter LR. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2022:S0091-6749(22)01182-4.

Identification of variants in genes associated with autoinflammatory disorders in a cohort of patients with psoriatic arthritis. Atschekzei F, Dubrowinskaja N, Anim M, Thiele T, Witte T, Sogkas G. RMD Open. 2022;8:e002561.

Novel aspects of regulatory T cell dysfunction as a therapeutic target in giant cell arteritis. Adriawan IR, Atschekzei F, Dittrich-Breiholz O, Garantziotis P, Hirsch S, Risser LM, Kosanke M, Schmidt RE, Witte T, Sogkas G. Ann Rheum Dis. 2022;81(1):124-131.

Cellular and molecular mechanisms breaking immune tolerance in inborn errors of immunity. Sogkas G, Atschekzei F, Adriawan IR, Dubrowinskaja N, Witte T, Schmidt RE. Cell Mol Immunol. 2021;18(5):1122-1140.

High frequency of variants in genes associated with primary immunodeficiencies in patients with rheumatic diseases with secondary hypogammaglobulinaemia. Sogkas G, Dubrowinskaja N, Adriawan IR, Anim M, Witte T, Schmidt RE, Atschekzei F. Ann Rheum Dis. 2021;80(3):392-399.

Contact

  Dr. Georgios Sogkas
Klinik für Rheumatologie & Immunologie
Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1
30625 Hannover
  +49 511 532 – 3799
  sogkas.georgios@
mh-hannover.de