The fight against invading pathogens is a constant battle between the pathogens and our immune system and for certain latent microbes like HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) the battle has yet to be won. HIV and MTB are amongst the microbes that notoriously change and evolve rapidly, making the development of protective vaccines a very difficult task. Consequently, there is an urgent need to search for other therapeutic strategies than the ones currently employed. 

Accumulating data suggest that HIV and MTB have found a way to circumvent the productive immune response by changing glycan-moieties on their surface leading to downregulation of otherwise productive signals. To deduce the signaling pathways involved in this, I am isolating immune cells from healthy human donors and stimulating them with the pathogens in question. The corresponding protein and gene expression patterns as well as the kinome and transcription factor activation patterns are analyzed and integrated using bioinformatics. By means of this integrative approach it is our aim to reveal new therapeutic candidates, to complement the current treatment against AIDS and tuberculosis.