Welcome to the MzH Lab

The laboratory of Gerd Meyer zu Hörste, MD (the MzH lab) is part of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital Münster and the University of Münster in Germany. We employ a wide range of experimental techniques to study disease mechanisms in neuro-immunological disorders. The specific aims of our research are:

1. Understand the interaction between T helper cells and parenchymal cells of the nervous system.

2. Characterize the interaction between recently discovered subsets of T helper cells with B cells in autoimmunity of the nervous system.

3. Define how the brain microenvironment shapes the phenotype and function of immune cells.

Areas of special interest include multiple sclerosis, inflammatory myopathy and inflammatory neuropathy and their animal models. In addition, we actively develop novel techniques and adapt them to neuroimmunological diseases including high-throughput single cell expression profiling and proteomic profiling.

Datasets

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All Clinical Neurology scRNAseq

Meninges

Single-cell profiling of CNS border compartment

Shiny app mouse Shiny app rat Manuscript

Neuro-COVID

Single-cell atlas of cerebrospinal fluid in Neuro-COVID and controls

Shiny app Manuscript

Murine peripheral nerve

Redefining the heterogeneity of peripheral nerve cells in health and autoimmunity

Shiny app naive mouse Shiny app inflam mouse Manuscript

Neurosarcoidosis

Differentiating neurosarcoidosis from multiple sclerosis using flow cytometry.

Shiny app Manuscript

Featured Publications

Bcl6 controls meningeal Th17-B cell interaction in murine neuroinflammation.

By generating a compartment-specific transcriptional map of meningeal versus parenchymal leukocytes in experimental neuroinflammation, we found a follicular phenotype of meningeal B cells and a corresponding follicular helper-like phenotype in meningeal Th17 cells. The meninges thus instructed a site-specific local phenotype to proinflammatory autoreactive T cells. We identified the transcription factor Bcl6 in Th17 cells to promote interactions with meningeal B cells, isotype-switching, and B cell-supporting chemokines. This may describe a mechanism controlling meningeal autoimmunity and helps understanding how the meninges, as a recently recognized immunologically active site, contribute to autoimmune tissue damage in multiple sclerosis.

Maike Hartlehnert, Anna-Lena Börsch, Xiaolin Li, Miriam Burmeister, Hanna Gerwien, David Schafflick, Michael Heming, I-Na Lu, Venu Narayanan, Jan-Kolja Strecker, Anna Kolz, Anneli Peters, Gregory F Wu, Heinz Wiendl, Lydia Sorokin, Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste

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Cerebrospinal fluid flow cytometry distinguishes psychosis spectrum disorders from differential diagnoses

We performed basic CSF analysis and multi-dimensional flow cytometry of CSF and blood cells from 59 patients with primary psychotic disorders in comparison to inflammatory and non-inflammatory controls. We found an expansion of monocytes in the blood and CSF of psychosis patients. A machine learning model incorporating blood and CSF parameters differentated psychosis from non-inflammatory controls better than individual paramaters.

Saskia Räuber, Michael Heming, Jonathan Repple, Tillmann Ruland, Rebecca Kuelby, Andreas Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Catharina C Gross, Volker Arolt, Bernhard Baune, Tim Hahn, Udo Dannlowski, Sven G Meuth, Nico Melzer, Heinz Wiendl, Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste

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Single-cell profiling of CNS border compartment leukocytes reveals that B cells and their progenitors reside in non-diseased meninges.

Based on single-cell transcriptomics, we here identify a highly location-specific composition and expression profile of tissue-resident leukocytes in CNS border compartments featuring B cells and their progenitors in the dura as an unexpected site of B cell residence.

David Schafflick, Jolien Wolbert, Michael Heming, Christian Thomas, Maike Hartlehnert, Anna-Lena Börsch, Alessio Ricci, Sandra Martín-Salamanca, Xiaolin Li, I-Na Lu, Mathias Pawlak, Jens Minnerup, Jan-Kolja Strecker, Thomas Seidenbecher, Sven G Meuth, Andres Hidalgo, Arthur Liesz, Heinz Wiendl, Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste

Cite Manuscript Shiny app mouse Shiny app rat

Neurological Manifestations of COVID-19 Feature T Cell Exhaustion and Dedifferentiated Monocytes in Cerebrospinal Fluid

We utilized single-cell sequencing and examined the immune cell profiles from the cerebrospinal fluid of Neuro-COVID patients and discovered an expansion of dedifferentiated monocytes and exhausted CD4+ T cells.

Michael Heming, Xiaolin Li, Saskia Räuber, Anne K Mausberg, Anna-Lena Börsch, Maike Hartlehnert, Arpita Singhal, I-Na Lu, Michael Fleischer, Fabian Szepanowski, Oliver Witzke, Thorsten Brenner, Ulf Dittmer, Nir Yosef, Christroph Kleinschnitz, Heinz Wiendl, Mark Stettner, Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste

Cite Shiny app Manuscript

Recent Publications

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Michael Heming, Lisa Lohmann, Andreas Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Tobias Brix, Catharina C Gross, Heinz Wiendl, Luisa Klotz, Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste (2020). Leukocyte profiles in blood and CSF distinguish neurosarcoidosis from multiple sclerosis. Journal of Neuroimmunology.

Cite Shiny app Manuscript

Jolien Wolbert, Xiaolin Li, Michael Heming, Anne K Mausberg, Dagmar Akkermann, Clara Frydrychowicz, Robert Fledrich, Linda Groeneweg, Christian Schulz, Mark Stettner, Noelia Alonso Gonzalez, Heinz Wiendl, Ruth Stassart, Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste (2020). Redefining the heterogeneity of peripheral nerve cells in health and autoimmunity.. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Cite Shiny app naive mouse Shiny app mouse Manuscript

Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste, Catharina C Gross, Luisa Klotz, Nicholas Schwab, Heinz Wiendl (2020). Next-Generation Neuroimmunology: New Technologies to Understand Central Nervous System Autoimmunity. Trends in Immunology.

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Jolien Wolbert, Mandy I. Cheng, Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste, Maureen A. Su (2020). Deciphering immune mechanisms in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathies. JCI Insight.

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David Schafflick, Chenling A Xu, Maike Hartlehnert, Michael Cole, Andreas Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Tobias Lautwein, Jolien Wolbert, Michael Heming, Sven G Meuth, Tanja Kuhlmann, Catharina C Gross, Heinz Wiendl, Nir Yosef, Gerd Meyer Zu Hörste (2020). Integrated single cell analysis of blood and cerebrospinal fluid leukocytes in multiple sclerosis. Nature Communications.

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Popular Topics

autoimmune encephalitis B cell Bcl6 blood CIDP Clinical Neurology CNS border compartments compartments CSF flow cytometry immune cell profiling inflammatory neuropathies inflammatory neuropathy machine learning meninges multiple sclerosis Neuroscience peripheral nerve schwann cells scRNAseq

Meet the Team

Anna-Lena Börsch

Master student

Carolin Lewe

Bachelor student

David Schafflick

PhD student

Frederike Straeten

Neurology resident

Gerd Meyer zu Hörste

Attending Neurologist, Principial investigator

I-Na Lu

PostDoc

Jolien Wolbert

PhD student

Julia Tietz

Technical assistant

Luca Marongiu

Master student

Maike Hartlehnert

PhD student

Michael Heming

Neurology resident

Sheng-Hsiang Shen

PhD student

Svea Haessner

Neurology resident

Funding

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Contact

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• gerd.mzh@uni-muenster.de
• Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, Münster, 48149