I have been working on skin dendritic cell biology for over 20 years to understand their migratory behaviour and their functional properties in the cutaneous immune system. During my master and PhD theses at the Department of Dermatology at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, I showed how Langerhans cells, the dendritic cells of the epidermis, become activated in the skin and migrate to draining lymph nodes to induce immune responses. During my post doctoral fellowship at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in Wellington, New Zealand, I made use of the functional properties of Langerhans cells to develop skin immunization strategies for the treatment of cancer. When I started my own research group at the Department of Dermatology in Innsbruck I realized that we need to comprehend the functional role of tumor infiltrating dendritic cells in skin cancer to improve immunotherapeutic strategies. With the help of several mouse models for melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer we now investigate the presence and function of dendritic cell subsets by flow cytometry, immunofluorescent microscopy and immunoassays. The overall aim is to harness dendritic cells for immunotherapy against cancer.

Function of dendritic cells in immunosurveillance of cutaneous tumors; skin dendritic cells as bridge between adaptive and innate immunity; development of novel strategies to treat skin cancer by harnessing skin dendritic cells.