Umbilical cord blood professional antigen-presenting cells

Ever since the 80s umbilical cord blood (UBC) is being used as a valuable source of hematopoietic stem cells for the treatment of malignant and non-malignant diseases. Apart from this, UBCs displays the unique feature of immunological nativity, which is still under current investigation.

As part of this project, professional antigen-presenting cells of UBCs, including dendritic cells, monocytes, macrophages and B Lymphocytes are being investigated in terms of their functionality and interaction with other immune cells in the context of immune tolerance. Furthermore, this project aims to identify yet unknown cell subsets of the antigen-presenting compartment using flow cytometry, cytokine-release assays, co-culture systems as well as transcriptome analysis.