Prof. Dr. med. Richard Taubert working group

The Taubert team deals scientifically with immune-mediated liver diseases before and after liver transplantation, i.e. above all with autoimmune liver diseases (especially autoimmune hepatitis) and with various forms of rejection after liver transplantation.

The projects of the working group investigate the contribution of the cellular (e.g. regulatory T cells) and humoral (autoantibodies or donor-specific antibodies) immune response in the pathophysiology of immune-mediated liver diseases. On the other hand, new methods are being investigated to better diagnose these immune-mediated liver diseases or to better monitor their progression during therapy.

Most recently, the focus has been on molecular analyses of gene expression in liver biopsy tissue to investigate immune regulation in the liver and to identify new molecular markers in addition to classical pathological light microscopy. For these projects, we rely on two prospective biomaterial collections (liver biopsies and blood samples) in patients with autoimmune liver diseases (since 2010) and on the protocol biopsy program after liver transplantation (since 2008).

This molecular approach in particular was awarded the 2017 Immunosuppression Prize by the German Transplantation Society.