Before a baby takes her first breath, her immune system is already at work. 

Yet birth changes everything. Suddenly, the immune system encounters a world of new signals and potential challenges: light, oxygen, food, microbes and medications.

How does the immune system prepare for this transition? What shapes its development? And what happens when this process is disrupted, for example by premature birth or infection?

PILOT (TRR 359 “Perinatal Development of Immune Cell Topology”) aims to answer these questions.

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), we investigate how the immune system develops, adapts and responds during the critical period around birth.

We seek to decode the mechanisms that shape early immune development - from pregnancy through the first weeks of life.

Our goal is to turn these insights into new therapeutic approaches, so that every infant can have the best possible start in life.