Prof. Dr. Annette Oxenius

Area of Research

Description of Research Interest

Annette Oxenius is Chair of Immunology at the Institute of Microbiology at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on infection immunology, mainly in the context of acute and chronic viral infections. Using two experimental infection models, chronic infection with Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) and latent / reactivating infection with murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) allows to study how adaptive immunity is regulated in face of overt or repetitive low level antigen exposure.
Chronic LCMV infection is associated with numerical and functional decimation of virus-specific CD8 T cell responses, collectively termed T cell exhaustion. Recently, emphasis has moved to virus-specific T helper cells, as they are markedly skewed towards a specific subtype, follicular T helper cells (TFH), during chronic viral infection. We could show that the generation of virus-neutralizing antibodies that eventually control the infection critically depends on sustained TFH activity. These findings have initiated a new priority area: to study molecular evolution of virus-specific antibody responses during chronic viral infections and the specific role of TFH cells in this process.
A second area focuses on the impact of chronic infections on the phenotype and function of bystander non virus-specific T cells.
A third area of investigation is the regulation of antiviral T cell immunity by NK cells.
A forth area is to understand regulation of T cell immunity in the context of latent CMV infection.

Special Expertise

Mouse models of acute and chronic viral infefctions