Other competencies
- Preclinical models for chronic inflammatory diseases of the nervous system
- High-resolution single-cell analysis at protein and RNA level (flow cytometry, RNA sequencing)
- Computer-aided analysis of multidimensional data (R/Seurat, etc.)
- Tissue/cell-specific genetic knockout models (CreLoxP)
Career
| since 2025 | Research Group Leader Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich |
| 2020 – 2025 | SNSF Ambizione Group Leader Neuroimmunology, Institute of Experimental Immunology, University of Zurich |
| 2016 – 2020 | Postdoctoral researcher, Inflammation Research (Prof. Burkhard Becher), Institute for Experimental Immunology, University of Zurich |
| 2012 – 2016 | PhD student, Chair of Immunology (Prof. Marcus Groettrup), University of Konstanz |
| 2006 – 2012 | Bachelor and Master of Science in Life Science, University of Konstanz |
Most important memberships
- ISNI – International Society of Neuroimmunology
- EMDS – European Macrophage and Dendritic Cell Society
- SSAI – Swiss Society for Allergology and Immunology
Research focus
The role of phagocytes in chronic inflammatory diseases of the CNS (funded by the Swiss MS Society, Novartis Foundation, Hartmann-Müller and Dr. Wilhelm Hurka Foundation)
- Villar-Vesga, J., Mapping Leukocyte Dynamics during Neuroinflammation Identifies Meningeal Monocyte-Derived Macrophages as Drivers of Progressive Disease. BioRxiv, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.15.670462
- Villar-Vesga, J.. Monocyte-Derived Cells But Not Microglia Cause Oxidative Tissue Damage in Neuroinflammation. BioRxiv 2024, https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.18.612891
- Gogoleva, V. S., Mundt, S., Mononuclear phagocytes in autoimmune neuroinflammation. Trends in immunology (2024), 45(10), 814-823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.it.2024.08.005
- Andreadou, M., Neuroprotective Tissue Adaptation Induced by IL-12 Attenuates CNS Inflammation. Nature Neuroscience 2023. doi.org/10.1038/s41593-023-01435-z
- Mundt, S., The CNS mononuclear phagocyte system in health and disease. Neuron (2022), 110(21), 3497-3512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.10.005.
The role of dendritic cells in the activation or prevention of autoimmunity (funded by Fonds zur Förderung des akademischen Nachwuchses and SNSF Ambizione)
- Keller, C. W., CYBB/NOX2 in conventional DCs controls T cell encephalitogenicity during neuroinflammation. Autophagy (2021), 17(5), 1244-1258. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548627.2020.1756678
- Mundt, S., Conventional DCs sample and present myelin antigens in the healthy CNS and allow parenchymal T cell entry to initiate neuroinflammation. Science immunology (2019), 4(31), eaau8380. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciimmunol.aau8380
- Mundt, S., The CNS Immune Landscape from the Viewpoint of a T Cell. Trends in neurosciences (2019), 42(10), 667-679. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2019.07.008.
- Keller, C. W., ATG-dependent phagocytosis in dendritic cells drives myelin-specific CD4+ T cell pathogenicity during CNS inflammation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2017), 114(52), E11228-E11237. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713664114.