Many pathogens can survive in phagocytes, whose task would be to take up and degrade the pathogen. In some cases, pathogens even depend on the recruitment of certain types of phagocytes to survive at a site of infection. On the one hand, we are investigating which cells are best suited as a niche for intracellular survival of the pathogens, and, on the other hand, how manipulation of these cells can influence the course of the immune response and control of infection.

Intravital 2-photon imaging of cell-to-cell transfer of a L. major parasite (red) from an originally infected host cell (green) into an inflammatory monocyte (blue).
Images were taken in the infected ear 3 weeks after infection. Histograms show fluorescence profiles plotted along the dashed lines. These inflammatory monocytes constitute an important niche for efficient pathogen proliferation. (Heyde et al., PLoS Pathog. 2018 Oct 22;14(10):e1007374.)