Wilfried Ellmeier is Professor of Immunobiology and Head of the Institute of Immunology at the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He studied biochemistry at the University of Vienna, received his PhD from the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Skirball Institute (NYU Medical Center) in New York. His research interests focus on epigenetic and transcriptional control mechanisms that regulate the development and function of T cells in health and disease. He has received several awards, including the START Program Award for highly qualified young scientists from the Austrian Science Fund and the Novartis Award Austria for Biology. Wilfried Ellmeier is a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Austrian Science Fund. He is President of the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology (ÖGAI) for the period 2025-2026. He also has a strong interest in science policy and was President of the BioMed Alliance in Europe from 2020 to 2021. He is Chairman of the Scientific Program Committee of the IUIS2025 (International Congress of Immunology), which will take place in Vienna in August 2025.

Nicole Boucheron studied cell and molecular biology in Strasbourg (France) and Milan (Italy). She obtained her PhD at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Lausanne branch (Switzerland), in the group of Immanuel Luescher. She focused on the activation of cytotoxic T cells by soluble peptide-MHC multimers and was involved in several projects published in prestigious journals. After graduating from the University of Lausanne in 2002, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the group of Wilfried Ellmeier at the Institute of Immunology of the Medical University of Vienna. Her work contributed to the understanding of important signaling pathways regulating the differentiation of CD4+ T cells and she discovered an unexpected plasticity of CD4+ T cells towards the CD8 lineage. She was awarded the Sanofi Aventis Prize (2014) for her work. She also made important contributions to other projects in the Ellmeier lab, which led to several publications as co-author. Since 2018, she has established her own research group focusing on the molecular control of T helper cell activation and differentiation during immune responses and diseases. Current projects address molecular determinants for the differentiation of murine and human naïve CD4+ T cells into follicular T helper cells and tissue adaptation of Th2 effector cells in allergic airway diseases, with a particular interest in the inhibition of class I HDACs in controlling this process. Nicole Boucheron has expertise in animal disease models, multicolor flow cytometry, genetic approaches in mice, advanced primary cell culture techniques, proteomics and high-throughput sequencing.

Georg Stary's scientific focus is on gaining a better understanding of the immune system of the skin and mucous membranes in order to find out how diseases can be prevented or treated. Already during his medical studies, he researched the contribution of different immune cells in inflammatory skin diseases and how they are influenced by various stimuli. He expanded his knowledge of immunodermatology and technological skills during a research stay of several months at the Department of Dermatology at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. "This early exposure to dermatological research was certainly a key factor in my subsequent decision to become a dermatologist and complete my specialist training at the Medical University of Vienna," explains Georg Stary.

During and following his specialist training, Stary spent several years as a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Ulrich von Andrian in Boston. During this research stay, he succeeded in developing a protective prophylactic chlamydia vaccination in a mouse model and working on the mechanistic significance of tissue-resident memory T cells in the mucosa.

After returning to the Department of Dermatology at the Medical University of Vienna in 2015, Stary was appointed Associate University Professor and established a research group. This resulted in scientific contributions to the phenotypic and functional characterization of tissue-resident memory T cells of the skin and their involvement in the (immune) pathogenesis of graft-vs-host disease and HIV infection. Stary and his team were also able to describe memory NK cells in the liver and in contact dermatitis, demonstrate the effect of tick bites on the skin's immune system and investigate the structure of skin granulomas using the latest methods. Based on the scientific findings, new therapeutic approaches are to be investigated in investigator-initiated trials by means of drug repurposing and thus bring direct benefits for patients.

In 2018, Stary was appointed Adjunct Principal Investigator at the Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, promoting innovative scientific collaborations with cutting-edge technologies. From 2019 - 2023, he was also Co-Director and Research Group Leader at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (LBI-RUD) and is now actively involved in establishing the Comprehensive Center for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital.

Stary is actively involved in various specialist societies. He sees himself as an example of a medical scientist ("clinician scientist") in order to answer medical questions by contributing clinical expertise on the one hand and the methodological and technological know-how available in the team in the fields of cellular and molecular immunology and bioinformatics on the other.

Sylvia Knapp, MD, PhD, is Professor of Infection Biology at the Medical University of Vienna. Sylvia studied medicine in Vienna and Berlin and is a specialist in internal medicine. After her clinical training, she completed her PhD at the University of Amsterdam, where she worked on pattern recognition receptors in bacterial infections. From 2006 to 2021, she was Principal Investigator at CeMM and ran her own laboratory alongside her clinical work. In 2012, Sylvia was appointed Professor of Infection Biology at the Medical University of Vienna. Her research focuses on the innate immune response to infection, with a particular emphasis on the extensive repertoire of macrophage functions in development, health and disease. Sylvia is highly committed to combining academic medicine and basic research. She is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Academia.Net circle of excellent female scientists. Sylvia is a member of the University Council of the Medical University of Graz, elected Vice President of the Ludwig Boltzmann Society and the Vienna Medical Association and Vice Dean for Doctoral Studies at the Medical University of Vienna.
During and following his specialist training, Stary completed a scientific postdoctoral stay of several years in the laboratory of Ulrich von Andrian in Boston. During this research stay, he succeeded in developing a protective prophylactic chlamydia vaccination in a mouse model and working on the mechanistic significance of tissue-resident memory T cells in the mucosa.

After returning to the Department of Dermatology at the Medical University of Vienna in 2015, Stary was appointed Associate University Professor and established a research group. This resulted in scientific contributions to the phenotypic and functional characterization of tissue-resident memory T cells of the skin and their involvement in the (immune) pathogenesis of graft-vs-host disease and HIV infection. Stary and his team were also able to describe memory NK cells in the liver and in contact dermatitis, demonstrate the effect of tick bites on the skin's immune system and investigate the structure of skin granulomas using the latest methods. Based on the scientific findings, new therapeutic approaches are to be investigated in investigator-initiated trials by means of drug repurposing and thus bring direct benefits for patients.

In 2018, Stary was appointed Adjunct Principal Investigator at the Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, promoting innovative scientific collaborations with cutting-edge technologies. From 2019 - 2023, he was also Co-Director and Research Group Leader at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (LBI-RUD) and is now actively involved in establishing the Comprehensive Center for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases at MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital.

Stary is actively involved in various specialist societies. He sees himself as an example of a medical scientist ("clinician scientist") in order to answer medical questions by contributing clinical expertise on the one hand and the methodological and technological know-how available in the team in the fields of cellular and molecular immunology and bioinformatics on the other.

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Eva Untersmayr-Elsenhuber is a specialist in clinical immunology and, in addition to her position as research group leader at the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research, works in private practice, where she treats patients with immunological diseases. Together with her research group, she is primarily concerned with the role of the largest immune organ in the human body, the gastrointestinal tract, in various inflammatory diseases, including ME/CFS. Of particular interest to the group's research work is the mucosal barrier, which not only protects the body from dangerous pathogens, but is also responsible for food absorption and can specifically trigger the immune response. Eva Untersmayr-Elsenhuber is responsible for the scientific management of the CCCFS project.

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