Prof. Carsten Watzl Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Germany

Carsten Watzl studied Biology in Heidelberg, Germany. During his PhD work at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg in the department of Peter Krammer, he focused on the signal transduction of the CD95 (APO-1/Fas) receptor (back then he was called Carsten Scaffidi). As a postdoctoral researcher he investigated the... read moreregulation of Natural Killer cells in the lab of Eric Long at the NIH (NIAID). In 2002 he returned to Germany as head of a junior research group at the Institute for Immunology at the University of Heidelberg where he continued to work on the topic of Natural Killer cells. In 2011, he became the scientific director of the Department of Immunology at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo) at TU Dortmund.
He investigated the signal transduction in Natural Killer cells, where he studied the interplay of activating and inhibitory surface receptors on the molecular level. His recent work has focused on the molecular mechanisms of NK cell cytotoxicity, starting with the adhesion to target cells, the differential use of granule and death receptor-mediated cytotoxicity as well as the regulation of detachment from target cells and how these processes contribute to the serial killing activity of NK cells. As an additional research focus he is investigating the regulation of NK cells by neuroendocrine factors.