Research Award

Jonathan Bohlen has been awarded an Emmy Noether Grant, supported with €1.85 million over six years.  The official start date for the funding is January 1, 2026.

His project addresses a central open question in immunology: how mRNA translation, one of the most energy-intensive processes in human cells, governs the function of T cells. T cells are key coordinators of immune defense, and their ability to recognize tumors or combat infections depends on their capacity to rapidly reprogram their cellular state. This rapid adaptation is driven not only by changes in gene activation but, critically, by how efficiently and selectively cells synthesize new proteins.

The project builds on insights from a rare congenital immunodeficiency, initially discovered and described by Dr. Bohlen, caused by defects in the translation-regulating factor MCTS1, which result in a highly specific susceptibility to mycobacterial infections. This observation gives rise to the project’s central hypothesis: finely tuned control of translation critically determines how T cells respond to pathogens, stress, and activation signals.

The research program pursues three major aims:

• Elucidating the mechanistic role of translation reinitiation in central T-cell signalling pathways.
• Identifying T-cell–specific mRNAs that are essential for metabolism, activation, and effector functions.
• Determining how T cells sustain high rates of protein synthesis under stress.

By systematically dissecting how specialized protein-synthesis mechanisms shape immune responses, the project will provide a new conceptual framework for understanding T-cell biology. Its findings are expected to advance diagnostics for rare immunodeficiencies and may inform the next generation of T-cell–based therapies, including CAR-T cells and cancer immunotherapies.

More about Jonathan Bohlen's research