Quirin Hammer team – Innate Immune Regulation

Central aspects of our research are to delineate the molecular signals that allow NK cells to recognize virus-infected cells and to study by which means NK cells discriminate between healthy and tumor-transformed cells. For this, we employ a broad range of in silico, cellular, as well as molecular biology techniques and study samples from patients with ongoing disease. In parallel to understanding the signals that initiate and restrict NK cell activation, we aim at exploiting such recognition pathways for cell therapy against cancer.

Team leader

Quirin's research at Karolinska Institutet focuses on investigating the molecular mechanisms with which NK cells detect virus-infected or tumor-transformed cells.

Quirin Hammer completed his PhD at the German Rheumatism Research Centre and the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2018. During his PhD, he studied host-pathogen interactions between human natural killer cells and cytomegalovirus.

When not at work, Quirin enjoys learning chess, having coffee and socializing.

Team members

Eleni joined the Hammer team as a Research assistant in March 2023. She received her Master of Medical Science in Molecular Medicine from Uppsala University in 2020, where she worked on investigating ion channel signaling in neural stem cells. She was first introduced to the topic of innate immunity during her bachelor’s studies in biology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, cooking, and taking long walks in nature.

Previous members

• Simone Schiele, Erasmus+ student. She joined the Hammer team for an Erasmus+ traineeship, investigating NK cell recognition of cytomegalovirus.

Collaborations

• Professor Chiara Romagnani, German Rheumatism Reserach Center, Berlin, Germany.
• Assistant Professor Amir Horowitz, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, United States of America.
• Associate Professor Mattia Mori, University of Siena, Siena, Italy.
• Assistant Professor Francesco Spallotta, Institute for Systems Analysis and Computer Science “A. Ruberti”, Rome, Italy.
• Professor Martin Messerle, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
• Professor Karl-Johan Malmberg, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

Publications

2020-2022

NK cell frequencies, function and correlates to vaccine outcome in BNT162b2 mRNA anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated healthy and immunocompromised individuals.
Cuapio A, Boulouis C, Filipovic I, Wullimann D, Kammann T, Parrot T, Chen P, Akber M, Gao Y, Hammer Q, Strunz B, Pérez Potti A, Rivera Ballesteros O, Lange J, Muvva JR, Bergman P, Blennow O, Hansson L, Mielke S, Nowak P, Söderdahl G, Österborg A, Smith CIE, Bogdanovic G, Muschiol S, Hellgren F, Loré K, Sobkowiak MJ, Gabarrini G, Healy K, Sällberg Chen M, Alici E, Björkström NK, Buggert M, Ljungman P, Sandberg JK, Aleman S, Ljunggren HG
Mol Med 2022 02;28(1):20 

SARS-CoV-2 Nsp13 encodes for an HLA-E-stabilizing peptide that abrogates inhibition of NKG2A-expressing NK cells.
Hammer Q, Dunst J, Christ W, Picarazzi F, Wendorff M, Momayyezi P, Huhn O, Netskar HK, Maleki KT, García M, Sekine T, Sohlberg E, Azzimato V, Aouadi M, , , Degenhardt F, Franke A, Spallotta F, Mori M, Michaëlsson J, Björkström NK, Rückert T, Romagnani C, Horowitz A, Klingström J, Ljunggren HG, Malmberg KJ
Cell Rep 2022 03;38(10):110503

An optimized platform for efficient siRNA delivery into human NK cells.
Palacios D, Momayyezi P, Huhn O, Ask EH, Dunst J, Malmberg KJ, Hammer Q
Eur J Immunol 2022 Apr;():

Extent of Cytomegalovirus Replication in the Human Host Depends on Variations of the HLA-E/UL40 Axis.
Vietzen H, Rückert T, Hartenberger S, Honsig C, Jaksch P, Geleff S, Hammer Q, Romagnani C, Segura-Wang M, Puchhammer-Stöckl E
mBio 2021 03;12(2):

Natural killer cell immunotypes related to COVID-19 disease severity.
Maucourant C, Filipovic I, Ponzetta A, Aleman S, Cornillet M, Hertwig L, Strunz B, Lentini A, Reinius B, Brownlie D, Cuapio A, Ask EH, Hull RM, Haroun-Izquierdo A, Schaffer M, Klingström J, Folkesson E, Buggert M, Sandberg JK, Eriksson LI, Rooyackers O, Ljunggren HG, Malmberg KJ, Michaëlsson J, Marquardt N, Hammer Q, Strålin K, Björkström NK,
Sci Immunol 2020 08;5(50):

TOX is expressed by exhausted and polyfunctional human effector memory CD8+ T cells.
Sekine T, Perez-Potti A, Nguyen S, Gorin JB, Wu VH, Gostick E, Llewellyn-Lacey S, Hammer Q, Falck-Jones S, Vangeti S, Yu M, Smed-Sörensen A, Gaballa A, Uhlin M, Sandberg JK, Brander C, Nowak P, Goepfert PA, Price DA, Betts MR, Buggert M
Sci Immunol 2020 07;5(49):

NK cell receptor NKG2D enforces proinflammatory features and pathogenicity of Th1 and Th17 cells.
Babic M, Dimitropoulos C, Hammer Q, Stehle C, Heinrich F, Sarsenbayeva A, Eisele A, Durek P, Mashreghi MF, Lisnic B, Van Snick J, Löhning M, Fillatreau S, Withers DR, Gagliani N, Huber S, Flavell RA, Polic B, Romagnani C
J Exp Med 2020 08;217(8):

2018-2019

Remodeling of secretory lysosomes during education tunes functional potential in NK cells.
Goodridge JP, Jacobs B, Saetersmoen ML, Clement D, Hammer Q, Clancy T, Skarpen E, Brech A, Landskron J, Grimm C, Pfefferle A, Meza-Zepeda L, Lorenz S, Wiiger MT, Louch WE, Ask EH, Liu LL, Oei VYS, Kjällquist U, Linnarsson S, Patel S, Taskén K, Stenmark H, Malmberg KJ
Nat Commun 2019 01;10(1):514

Natural killer cell specificity for viral infections.
Hammer Q, Rückert T, Romagnani C
Nat Immunol 2018 08;19(8):800-808

Peptide-specific recognition of human cytomegalovirus strains controls adaptive natural killer cells.
Hammer Q, Rückert T, Borst EM, Dunst J, Haubner A, Durek P, Heinrich F, Gasparoni G, Babic M, Tomic A, Pietra G, Nienen M, Blau IW, Hofmann J, Na IK, Prinz I, Koenecke C, Hemmati P, Babel N, Arnold R, Walter J, Thurley K, Mashreghi MF, Messerle M, Romagnani C
Nat Immunol 2018 05;19(5):453-463