Christina Zielinski

Prof. Dr. Christina Zielinski

Infection Immunology · Head +49 3641 532-1251 christina.zielinski@leibniz-hki.de

Curriculum vitae

Main Research Areas
  • Regulation of human T cells in physiological and pathological contexts
  • Communication of human T cells with the tissue microenvironment
  • Identification of pharmacological targets for T cell-based immunotherapies in chronic infections
Professional Career
since 2021 W3-Professorship (Chair of Department of Infection Immunology) at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Hans Knöll Institute), University of Jena
2015 - 2020 Professorship of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) at the Technical University of Munich
2011 – 2015 Clinical training in dermatology and allergology at the Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Department of Dermatology) and Clinical Scientist Track Program of the Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies, Board certification 2015
2008 – 2011 Postdoctoral training (DFG fellowship) at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Bellinzona, Switzerland (Supervisor: Federica Sallusto, PhD)
2006 – 2008 Clinical training in dermatology at the University of Tübingen (Head of department: Prof. Dr. med. M. Röcken)
2007 Doctor of Medicine (summa cum laude): “Intrinsic T cell defects in a mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus“
2006 Approbation (license to practice medicine)
1999 – 2006 Medical School at the University of Heidelberg (1 Semester Harvard Medical School, 1 Semester Duke Medical School), Scholar of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
Awards · Appointments · Scientific Activities
2023 Elected Board member of the Germany Society for Immunology (DGFI)
2023 Member of the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Immunology
2023 Organizer of the German-Japanese Immunology Alliance
2020 Paul Langerhans Preis der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dermatologische Forschung
2019 Ingrid zu-Solms Preis für Medizin
2019 Deutscher Neurodermitis Preis der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft
2015 Vortragspreis auf dem International Congress on Autoinflammation, Dresden
2014 Forschungspreis der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Rheumatologie
2014 Silver Award der LEO Pharma Research Foundation für außerordentliche Beiträge zur Dermatologischen Forschung (European Society for Dermatological Research, ESDR)
2014 Wolfgang-Schulze Preis (Deutsche Rheuma-Liga)
2013 Oscar-Gans-Förderpreis (wichtigster Preis für dermatologische Forschung in Deutschland)
2013 Paul Janssen-Preis für Dermatologie und Immunologie der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft
2013 Forschungspreis der Berliner Gesellschaft für Dermatologie
2012 Robert-Koch-Postdoktorandenpreis für Immunologie
2012 Nils-Ilja-Richter-Preis der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Autoimmun-Erkrankungen
2012 Celgene Award for Innovation in Inflammation and Immunology Research into Dermatological Diseases (bester europäischer Beitrag zur Dermatologie durch Nachwuchsforscher, European Society for Dermatological Research)
2011 Vortragspreis, European Academy and Clinical Immunology Conference, Istanbul
2011 gewähltes Mitglied der ‘ESDR Academy for Future Leaders in Dermatology’
2011 Posterpreis, Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Allergologie und Immunologie, Lugano
2010 Posterpreis, Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Immunologie, Leipzig
2010 Vortragspreis, World Immune Regulation Meeting, Davos



Publications

May L, Chu CF, Zielinski CE (2024) Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals HIF1A as a severity-sensitive immunological scar in circulating monocytes of convalescent comorbidity-free COVID-19 patients. Cells 13(4), 300.
Chao YY, Puhach A, Frieser D, Arunkumar M, Lehner L, Seeholzer T, Garcia-Lopez A, van der Wal M, Fibi-Smetana S, Dietschmann A, Sommermann T, Ćiković T, Taher L, Gresnigt MS, Vastert SJ, van Wijk F, Panagiotou G, Krappmann D, Groß O, Zielinski CE (2023) Human TH17 cells engage gasdermin E pores to release IL-1α on NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Nat Immunol 24(2), 295-308.
Meiser P, Knolle MA, Hirschberger A, de Almeida GP, Bayerl F, Lacher S, Pedde AM, Flommersfeld S, Hönninger J, Stark L, Stögbauer F, Anton M, Wirth M, Wohlleber D, Steiger K, Buchholz VR, Wollenberg B, Zielinski CE, Braren R, Rueckert D, Knolle PA, Kaissis G, Böttcher JP (2023) A distinct stimulatory cDC1 subpopulation amplifies CD8+ T cell responses in tumors for protective anti-cancer immunity. Cancer Cell 41(8), 1498-1515.
Soll D, Arunkumar M, Alkhalaf M, Sun S, Nguyen T, Chu C, Lutz V, Schäuble S, Garcia-Ribelles I, Mueller M, Michalke B, Panagiotou G, Schatzlmaier P, Stockinger H, Schamel W, Huber M, Zielinski C (2023) Sodium chloride in the tumor microenvironment enhances T-cell metabolic fitness and cytotoxicity. BioRxiv [Preprint]
Zielinski CE (2023) T helper cell subsets: diversification of the field. Eur J Immunol 53(12), e2250218. (Review)
de Almeida GP, Lichtner P, Eckstein G, Brinkschmidt T, Chu CF, Sun S, Reinhard J, Mädler SC, Kloeppel M, Verbeek M, Zielinski CE (2022) Human skin-resident host T cells can persist long term after allogeneic stem cell transplantation and maintain recirculation potential. Sci Immunol 7(67), eabe2634.
Haunhorst S, Bloch W, Javelle F, Krüger K, Baumgart S, Drube S, Lemhöfer C, Reuken P, Stallmach A, Müller M, Zielinski CE, Pletz MW, Gabriel HHW, Puta C (2022) A scoping review of regulatory T cell dynamics in convalescent COVID-19 patients – indications for their potential involvement in the development of Long COVID? Front Immunol 13, 1070994. (Review)
Stary G, Fabri M, Gebhardt C, Eming R, Matthias J, Vorobyev A, Effern M, Strobl J, Günther C, Zielinski C, Dudziak D, Géraud C, Raker V, Butze M, Zhao F, Wang Y, Gerloff D, Bertschi NL, Gaffal E, Buhl T (2022) Meeting Report: 47th Annual Meeting of the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dermatologische Forschung". Exp Dermatol 31(10), 1641-1651. (Review)
Yin H, Karayel O, Chao YY, Seeholzer T, Hamp I, Plettenburg O, Gehring T, Zielinski C, Mann M, Krappmann D (2022) A20 and ABIN-1 cooperate in balancing CBM complex-triggered NF-κB signaling in activated T cells. Cell Mol Life Sci 79(2), 112.
Arunkumar M, Zielinski CE (2021) T-Cell receptor repertoire analysis with computational tools-an immunologist's perspective. Cells 10(12), 3582. (Review)