Principal investigator: Dr Max Bastian

Dr Max Bastian graduated from the Veterinary School of Hannover in 1999. During his PhD studies at the Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, he investigated human T cell responses to a peptide malaria vaccine. He then moved to the group of Steffen Stenger at the universities in Erlangen and Ulm to characterize correlates of protection in TB in the TBVAC workpackage WP4 led by Tom Ottenhoff. From 2009 to 2015 he led his own research group at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute. An important aspect of his research has been to study a severe safety issue of a licensed, bovine vaccine. Since four years the main focus of his research program is to study the immune response of guinea pigs to mycobacterial glycolipid and lipopeptide antigens. In September 2015 he moved from the Paul-Ehrlich- to the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute. He was appointed Secretary of the Standing Committee on Veterinary Vaccines, an institution that issues evidence- and study-based guidelines on the use of veterinary vaccines and immunologicals in Germany. Dr. Bastian coordinates the work of the Committee and is leading a laboratory to continue his research on prevention strategies against tuberculosis.

Projects:

  • Characterization of guinea pig immune responses to mycobacterial lipid antigens.
  • Elucidation of the pathoaetiology of Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia, a vaccine induced feto-maternal incompatibility syndrome.
  • Search for correlates of protection against M.tuberculosis in infected humans.

Publications:

  • Kaufmann, E., C. Spohr, S. Battenfeld, D. De Paepe, T. Holzhauser, E. Balks, S. Homolka, N. Reiling, M. Gilleron, and M. Bastian. 2016. BCG-vaccination induces robust CD4+ T-cell responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex-specific lipopeptides in guinea pigs. J Immunol accepted 2016/01/12.
  • Spohr, C., E. Kaufmann, S. Battenfeld, K. Duchow, K. Cussler, E. Balks, and M. Bastian. 2015. A new lymphocyte proliferation assay for potency determination of bovine tuberculin PPDs. Altex 32:201-210.
  • Bastian, M., T. Braun, H. Bruns, M. Rollinghoff, and S. Stenger. 2008. Mycobacterial Lipopeptides Elicit CD4+ CTLs in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Infected Humans. J Immunol 180:3436-3446.
  • Kasonta, R., M. Holsteg, K. Duchow, J. Dekker, K. Cussler, J. Bendall, and M. Bastian. 2014. Colostrum from cows immunized with a vaccine associated with Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia contains allo-antibodies that cross-react with human MHC-I molecules. PLoS One 9:e109239.
  • Kasonta, R., C. Sauter-Louis, M. Holsteg, K. Duchow, K. Cussler, and M. Bastian. 2012. Effect of the vaccination scheme on PregSure®BVD induced alloreactivity and the incidence of Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia. Vaccine 30:6649-6655.