Nicolas SCHLEINITZ

As a an internal medicine physician, I am often faced with patients who have conditions that result from immune system dysfunctions. These inflammatory or autoimmune diseases are often rare diseases whose causes and symptoms are misunderstood: lupus, myositis autoimmune diseases, immune deficiencies in adults, systemic fibrosis, etc.

Like Marseille Immunopole, our discipline is positioned at the interface of different medical specialties, but also of fundamental and translational research. For many years our service at the Timone Hospital has collaborated with researchers including the ” Natural Killer Cells and Innate Immunity” team of Eric VIVIER at CIML. Together, we have developed a laboratory at the Conception Hospital specializing in the functional exploration of these lymphocytes and rare lymphocyte populations. We are conducting studies to better understand their involvement in diseases such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Immune Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) or IgG4-related diseases. The laboratory has also developed a routine battery of tests to quantify and qualify the activity of NK cells, T helper cells (Th) and Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILCs), particularly in clinical trials.