Stefanie Gilles PhD

Stefanie Gilles' mission is to decipher innate immune signatures that are necessary and sufficient to break peripheral tolerance and initiate allergic sensitization. This research will help to identify novel allergens, but it might also lead to the development of allergenicity bioassays that could replace animal models in the future.

A second focus is on the immune response of the nasal mucosa under co-exposure to microbes and allergens, e. g. viruses and pollen. This is relevant, since under real-life conditions, humans are never exposed to ‘isolated’ allergens or viruses, but too complex, mixed bioaerosols. Therefore, it is important to study the mucosal immune system in the context of co-exposure. The research on cross-signaling between infection and allergy will point out currently underestimated risk exposures.

Stefanie Gilles studied Biology at LMU. After she had obtained her Ph.D., she worked as a postdoc on TLR signaling in human dendritic cell subsets. In 2006, Dr. Gilles joined the group of Prof. Traidl-Hoffmann at ZAUM – Center for Allergy and Environment, TUM, where she started working with dendritic cells in the context of pollen allergy.

In 2014, she moved with the new Chair of Environmental Medicine, UNIKA-T, to Augsburg, where she started being a group leader. Since 2021, she is heading the Environmental Immunology group at the Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg. She has been affiliated with the Helmholtz Center Munich as a guest scientist from 2014 until today.

Dr. Gilles supervised 4 bachelor-, 5 master-, 5 Ph.D., and 3 MD theses and has lectured in the field of allergology in the HELENA lecture series of HMGU. She is currently involved in building up the Environmental Health and Lung Research School at Helmholtz Munich.

Her current team in Augsburg has 3 Ph.D. students, 3 MD students, and a technician. The methods used are cell culture models, organoids, human ‘real-life’ biomonitoring, and experimental exposure studies.