What is iHEAD?
The central goal of the interdisciplinary research consortium iHEAD is to establish immunometabolism as an emerging field of research in host-microbe interactions. We hypothesize that immunometabolism is a fundamental property of immune systems across kingdoms of life that resulted in the evolution of potentially common as well as kingdom-specific infochemicals.
In interactions with pathogenic microbes, such molecules connect host metabolism and immunity, underpin immune functions and regulate the host metabolism. In beneficial interactions with microbes, metabolic signals integrate host and microbiota metabolic activities to establish metabolic homeostasis, which is critical for host health. We will broaden this emerging area of research in plant-microbe interactions by investigating unexplored extracellular and intracellular metabolic signaling mechanisms driving inflammation and disease in animal-microbe interactions.
​
Scientists in the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MNF, Departments of Chemistry, Physics and Biology) at the University of Cologne (UoC) have teamed up with the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing to investigate the regulatory roles of metabolic signals and bioactive metabolites in immune systems.
​
