Dr. Maren von Köckritz-Blickwede
Dr. Maren von Köckritz-Blickwede studied biology at the University of Hanover. During this time, she spent one year at the Universidad Nacional de Heredia, Costa Rica, where she performed epidemiological studies about vesicular stomatitis viruses in horses in Costa Rica. In 2001 she completed her Diplom research studies with the title “Isolation and characterization of metabolically competent pulmonary epithelial cells from pig and rat lung tissue for the use in biotransformation and toxicity studies” at the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine in Hanover, Germany.
After graduation, she started a PhD research fellowship of the DFG-graduate school "Mucosal Host-Pathogen Interactions" at the Federal Agricultural Research Centre for Animal Science in Neustadt-Mariensee, Germany. The topic of her PhD thesis was: “Antibiotic-dependent modulation of staphylococcal virulence properties”. She received her Dr. rer. nat. title in December 2004 at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover, Germany.
After that she spent three years as a PostDoc at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, Germany, where she studied the role of host genetic and immune factors involved in the susceptibility and resistance against Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus infections. During this time she discovered that mast cells have the ability to kill bacterial pathogens by the formation of antimicrobial extracellular traps (Blood, 2008).
Based on this work, she obtained a prestigious grant from the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina to study the role of extracellular traps during bacterial infections, to identify bacterial strategies that avoid entrapment and killing by these structures, and to search for novel pharmacological agents that boost the formation of extracellular traps. She perfomed these studies from September 2008 until June 2010 in the laboratory of Prof. Victor Nizet, at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, California. Her research shed new light on the importance of extracellular traps in host defense and provides new therapeutic opportunities to enhance the local innate immune response against bacterial infections. After joining the Department of Physiological Chemistry, Maren von Köckritz-Blickwede will lead the research group Infection Biochemistry and will continue her research about extracellular traps as a potential novel therapeutic target against bacterial infections.
Publikationen
- Kisseleva T, von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Reichart D, McGillvray SM, Wingender G, Kronenberg M, Glass CK, Nizet V, Brenner DA
Fibrocyte-like cells recruited to the spleen support innate and adaptive immune responses to acute injury or infection
J Mol Med (Berl). 2011 Apr 16 [Epub ahead of print] - Chow OA, von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Bright AT, Hensler ME, Zinkernagel AS, Cogen AL, Gallo RL, Monestier M, Wang Y, Glass CK, Nizet V
Statins enhance formation of phagocyte extracellular traps
Cell Host Microbe. 2010 Nov 18;8(5):445-54 - Berends ET, Horswill AR, Haste NM, Monestier M, Nizet V, von Köckritz-Blickwede M
Nuclease expression by Staphylococcus aureus facilitates escape from neutrophil extracellular traps
J Innate Immun. 2010 Sep 10;2(6):576-86 - Cole JN, Pence MA, von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Hollands A, Gallo RL, Walker MJ, Nizet V
M Protein and Hyaluronic Acid Capsule Are Essential for In Vivo Selection of covRS Mutations Characteristic of Invasive Serotype M1T1 Group A Streptococcus
MBio. 2010 Aug 31;1(4). pii: e00191-10 - Crotty Alexander LE, Maisey HC, Timmer AM, Rooijakkers SHM, Gallo RL, von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Nizet V.
M1T1 group A streptococcal pili promote epithelial colonization but diminish systemic virulence through neutrophil extracellular entrapment
J. Mol. Med. 88:371-381 (2010) - Von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Konrad S, Foster S, Gessner JE, Medina E.
Protective role of complement C5a in an experimental model of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia.
J. Innate Immun. 2: 87-92 (2009) - Von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Chow OA, Nizet V.
Fetal calf serum contains heat-stable nucleases that degrade neutrophil extracellular traps.
Blood, 114: 5245-5246 (2009). - Von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Nizet V.
Innate Immunity Turned Inside-Out: Antimicrobial Defense by Phagocyte Extracellular Traps.
J. Mol. Med. 87: 775-783 (2009) - Lauth X*, von Köckritz-Blickwede M*, McNamara CW, Myskowski S, Zinkernagel AS, Beall B, Ghosh P, Gallo RL, Nizet V.
M1 protein allows group A streptococcal survival in phagocyte extracellular traps through cathelicidin inhibition.
J. Innate Immun. 1:202-214 (2009) - Oehmcke S, Shannon O, von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Mörgelin M, Linder A, Olin AI, Björck L, Herwald H.
Treatment of invasive streptococcal infection with a peptide derived from human high-molecular weight kininogen.
Blood 114: 444-451 (2009) - Von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Rohde M, Oehmcke S, Miller LS, Cheung AL, Herwald H, Foster S, Medina E.
Immunological mechanisms underlying the genetic predisposition to severe Staphylococcus aureus infection in the mouse model.
Am. J. Pathol. 173:1657-1668 (2008) - Von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Goldmann O, Heinemann K, Thulin P, Norrby-Teglund A, Rohde M, Medina E.
Phagocytosis-independent antimicrobial activity of mast cells by means of extracellular trap formation.
Blood 111: 3070-3080 (2008) - Goldmann O, von Köckritz-Blickwede M, Höltje C, Chatwal GS, Geffers R, Medina E.
Transcriptome analysis of murine macrophages in response to infection with Streptococcus pyogenes reveals an unusual activation program.
Infect. Immun. 75, 4148-4157 (2007) - Lüthje P, von Köckritz-Blickwede M, and Schwarz S.
Identification and characterization of nine novel types of small staphylococcal plasmids carrying the lincosamide nucleotidyltransferase gene lnu(A).
J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 59; 600-606 (2007) - Hansen T, Blickwede M, Borlak J.
Primary rat alveolar epithelial cells for use in biotransformation and toxicity studies.
Toxicol. In Vitro 20:757-766 (2006) - Blickwede M, Borlak J.
Isolation and characterization of metabolically competent pulmonary epithelial cells from pig lung tissue.
Xenobiotica 35: 927-941 (2005) - Borlak J, Blickwede M, Hansen T, Koch W, Walles M, Levsen K.
Metabolism of verapamil in cultures of rat alveolar epithelial cells and pharmacokinetics after administration by intravenous and inhalation routes.
Drug Metab. Dispos. 33:1108-1114 (2005) - Blickwede M, Wolz, C, Valentin-Weigand P, Schwarz S.
Influence of clindamycin on mRNA stability of coa and fnbB transcripts and adherence properties of Staphylococcus aureus Newman.
FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 252: 73-78 (2005) - Blickwede M, Goethe R, Wolz C, Valentin-Weigand P, Schwarz S.
Molecular basis of florfenicol-induced increase in adherence of Staphylococcus aureus strain Newman.
J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 56:315-323 (2005) - Blickwede M, Valentin-Weigand P, Rohde M, Schwarz S.
Effects of subinhibitory concentrations of florfenicol on morphology, growth, and viability of Staphyloccus aureus.
J. Vet. Med. B 51: 293-296 (2004) - Blickwede M, Valentin-Weigand P, Schwarz S.
Subinhibitory concentrations of florfenicol enhance the adherence of florfenicol-susceptible and florfenicol-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. J. Antimicrob.
Chemother. 54: 286-288 (2004) - Blickwede M, Schwarz S.
Molecular analysis of florfenicol-resistant Escherichia coli isolates from pigs.
J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 53: 58-64 (2004) - Schwarz S, Blickwede M, Kehrenberg C, Brenner Michael G.
Phänotypische und genotypische Verfahren zur Typisierung veterinärmedizinisch relevanter bakterieller Erreger im Rahmen infektionsepidemiologischer Fragestellungen, dargestellt am Beispiel von Bakterien der Genera Staphylococcus, Salmonella und Pasteurella.
Berl. Münch. Tierärztl. Wschr. 116:401-416 (2003) - Blickwede M, Dolz H, Herrero MV, Tomlinson SM, Salman M.
Neutralizing antibodies against vesicular stomatitis viruses (serotypes New Jersey and Indiana) in horses in Costa Rica.
J. Vet. Diagn. Invest. 14: 438-441 (2002)