- Thrombotic Autoimmune diseases
- Immune-mediated Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (iTTP)
- Autophagy Immune response
- Human monoclonal antibody generation-phage display
- Collaborations: Prof. Johanna Kremer Hovinga, Department of Hematology and central Hematology Laboratory, Inselspital Bern University Hospital, Prof. Mario P. Tschan, Pathology, University of Bern and Prof. Sylviane Muller, Strasbourg, France
Expertise
As a molecular immunologist with longstanding experience in in the field of autoimmune diseases, my key efforts are to unravel the pathophysiology of different autoimmune diseases in general, with the focus on thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and related thrombotic autoimmune diseases. As major leitmotif throughout my entire scientific career, I used my expertise in repertoire cloning of autoantibodies as tools for the development of novel therapeutics for anti-glucose-6-phosphate-isomerase (GPI) in autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis patients (Schaller et al, Nature Immunology, 2000), for anti-C1q autoantibodies in SLE patients (Schaller and Bigler et al, Jounral of Immunology, 2009) and for anti-ADAMTS13 antibodies in iTTP patients (Schaller et al, Blood, 2014).
