DC 2 - Immunometabolic Profiling across Cell types and Diseases; Advancements and Standardization towards Common Practice

• Objectives:

Aim of the project: Apply immunometabolic profiling across cell types and diseases.

1. establish and standardize cytometry-based immunometabolic profiling panels. Using such innovative flow panels, we will enable a comprehensive analysis of key metabolic pathways including FAO, FAS, and the TCA cycle, and newly identified pathways in the DN across species;
2. identify metabolic and lipid metabolic profiles in health and disease. Reveal conserved or disease-specific profiles across cells, tissues, and disease states (e.g., multiple sclerosis, lung cancer, CVD);
3. investigate how selected interventions reshape immune cell metabolism. Reveal how lifestyle-induced metabolic shifts (e.g., dietary changes), immunometabolic modulators, and commonly used clinical drugs reshape immune cell metabolism and function across cell types in order to guide diagnostic biomarkers and targeted immune interventions.

• Brief project description:

It is now clear that the metabolic configuration is a key regulator of immune cell function, and thus this is a variable that needs to be considered when designing improved treatments and diagnostics. While the opportunities to profile immunometabolism have rapidly expanded in the past years, this is still not common practice in most laboratories in academia and industry. To move the field to the next level, accessible and standardized tools are needed to reduce the barrier of entry to immunometabolism studies and facilitate the translation of fundamental findings towards clinical applications.

• Planned secondments:

Matthijs Moerland, Manon Jansen (CHDR, the Netherlands)
• DC will be trained for translation of immunometabolic profiling into clinical practice.

Brenner lab (Luxembourg Institute of Health, Luxembourg)
• DC will be trained to use the Disease Modelling & Screening Platform (DMSP) to dissect the immunometabolic effects of the key targets identified previously in various cell types.