from  Prof. Dr. Cryil Cohen (Bar-Ilan University) & Prof. Dr. Dietmar Zehn (Technical University of Munich)

The ongoing corona pandemic reveals the major challenge we are facing in preventing and treating viral infections. 

It also emphasizes the strong need to better understand i) how our immune system protects us against the majority of viruses we become exposed to, ii) why it fails in protecting us against certain pathogens, and iii) why the protective capacity typically declines with age. 

GIF Grantees Prof. Cyrille Cohen (Bar-Ilan University) and Prof. Dietmar Zehn (Technical University of Munich) investigate the biology of T lymphocytes – the main immune cell population that eliminates viral infection.

Within their joint GIF Grant, Prof. Cohen and Prof. Zehn are exploring mechanisms leading to failed immune-protection in chronic infection and malignant tumors.

Over the last years they have made several important contributions to understand cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive pathological immune responses (Utzschneider et al., Nature Immunology 2013, Immunity 2016, JEM 2016, PNAS 2019).

This included the identification of a key transcription factor (TOX) that attenuates T lymphocyte-mediated immunity (Alfei et al., Nature 2019). Meanwhile, there is preliminary evidence that this factor could also play a role in severe cases of COVID-19. Presently, they are planning studies to sustain these observations.

During the SARS-pandemic they were approached by oncologists, who operate a large outpatient clinic network (Prof. D. Hempel, Donauwörth). Together they systematically analyzed the prevalence of COVID-19 in the outpatient cohort, and found that, surprisingly, the rate of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers among oncology outpatients was low compared to COVID-19 positive health individuals. Their findings in outpatients contrast reports of severe COVID-19 infections among clinal oncology patients. Thus, COVID-19 poses a challenge to a fraction of oncology patients while the cohort appeared resistant.

Since the decision on whether to start, continue or discontinue a tumor therapy has vital consequences for patients, Prof. Cohen and Prof. Zehn are designing a research project to find rational criteria for when oncology therapies can continue or have to be changed.

Moreover, the German-Israeli team is very interested in identifying the mechanisms that mediated the COVID-19 resistance in their cohort. They anticipate that this will reveal significant new insights to better understand the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and to rationally design vaccine strategies against the virus, and hope to gain funding support to explore these critical issues. 

In addition, Prof. Cyrille Cohen has been active on the “regulatory front” of the pandemics: He was appointed as member of the advisory committee of clinical trials for corona virus vaccines at the Israel Ministry of Health. As part of his duties in this committee as an immunologist, he has been helping with the national effort to evaluate and recommend the implementation of clinical trials to determine the safety and efficacy of novel Covid19 vaccines.​​​