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Participating Scientist
Prof. Dr. Ingo Bechmann
The research interests of the institute of anatomy are particularly concentrated on immunity and plasticity of the brain within the fields of "Brain, cognition and language".
For a long time, it was believed that brain and immune system were separated by the blood-brain barrier, even though it was known that the blood-brain barrier is a barrier for soluble molecules, not for cells. Indeed, it has been shown that immunological processes could play a major role for plasticity in the context of learning and regeneration. Alzheimer’s disease can be described as an age-induced loss of immune cells.
We aim to specifically modulate the immunity in the brain in order to be able to better handle diseases like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and paraplegia.