Translational Microbiology and Immunopathology of Infections

Prof. Dr. Volker Winstel

Volker Winstel studied Biology at the Universities of Karlsruhe and Tübingen (Germany), where he obtained his Diploma in 2010. He then joined the laboratory of Professor Dr. Andreas Peschel at the Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen (IMIT), where he analyzed the role of wall teichoic acid glycosylation in Gram-positive pathogens as part of his Ph.D. thesis work. Subsequent postdoctoral studies in the same group and in the laboratory of Professor Dr. Olaf Schneewind at the University of Chicago (USA) focused on the pathogenesis of clinically relevant bacterial pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the dissection of immuno-modulatory strategies that enable microbial invasion and dissemination of disease. Before his appointment as a Professor at the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen in 2024, he had led an independent Research Group at TWINCORE (Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research) and the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology at Hannover Medical School (Hannover, Germany). His scientific work is funded by several grants, and it is published in journals such as Nature Communications, Nature Microbiology, Nature Protocols, PNAS, and PLoS Pathogens.

Professor Winstel’s work at the Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen continues to focus on hospital- and community-acquired infections caused by MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Specifically, his team applies microbiological, genetic, biochemical, and molecular approaches as well as disease-mimicking tissue culture systems and in vivo models to investigate the impact of microbial biomolecules on infectious diseases and pathogen evolution in complex microenvironments. With the help of CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis and organoid models, his group is also studying the contribution of multiple host factors and associated single nucleotide polymorphisms toward S. aureus pathogenesis and disease severity in hospitalized and critically ill patients. Since S. aureus is one of the most frequent causes of ventilator-associated and community-acquired pneumonia, further research in the Winstel laboratory aims at gaining a more precise understanding of how pathogenic staphylococci interfere with the human host during acute and chronic infections of the respiratory tract, with the overall goal to develop new prophylactic agents and unique antimicrobial therapies.

Contact

Professor Dr. rer. nat. Volker Winstel
Department of Medicine V, Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Infection Control
Section Translational Microbiology and Immunopathology of Infections
German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner Site Giessen-Marburg-Langen
Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany

Schubertstr. 81
35392 Giessen, Germany

Tel: +49 641 99 46401

E-mail: volker.winstel@innere.med.uni-giessen.de

Ten most important publications:

1. Winstel V*, Abt ER, Le TM, Radu CG. Targeting host deoxycytidine kinase mitigates Staphylococcus aureus abscess formation. elife. 2024 Mar 21;12:RP91157. doi: 10.7554/eLife.91157 (*corresp. author)
2. Schwermann N, Haller R, Koch S, Grassl GA, Winstel V*. Pathogen-driven nucleotide overload triggers mitochondria-centered cell death in phagocytes. PLoS Pathog. 2023 Dec 29; 19(12):e1011892. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1011892 (*corresp. author)
3. Tantawy E, Schwermann N, Ostermeier T, Garbe A, Bähre H, Vital M, Winstel V*. Staphylococcus aureus multiplexes death-effector deoxyribonucleosides to neutralize phagocytes. Front Immunol. 2022 Mar 10;13:847171. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.847171 (*corresp. author)
4. Du X, Larsen J, Li M, Walter A, Slavetinsky C, Both A, Sanchez Carballo PM, Stegger M, Lehmann E, Liu Y, Liu J, Slavetinsky J, Duda KA, Krismer B, Heilbronner S, Weidenmaier C, Mayer C, Rohde H, Winstel V, Peschel A. Staphylococcus epidermidis clones express Staphylococcus aureus-type wall teichoic acid to shift from a commensal to pathogen lifestyle. Nat Microbiol.  2021 Jun;6(6): 757–768. doi: 10.1038/s41564-021-00913-z
5. Winstel V*, Schneewind O, Missiakas D*. Staphylococcus aureus exploits the host apoptotic pathway to persist during infection. mBio. 2019 Nov 12;10(6). pii: e02270-19. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02270-19 (*corresp. author, shared)
6. Winstel V, Missiakas D, Schneewind O. Staphylococcus aureus targets the purine salvage pathway to kill phagocytes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2018 Jun 26;115(26):6846-6851doi: 10.1073/pnas.1805622115
7. Wanner S, Schade J, Keinhörster D, Weller N, George SE, Kull L, Bauer J, Grau T, Winstel V, Stoy H, Kretschmer D, Kolata J, Wolz C, Bröker BM, Weidenmaier C. Wall teichoic acids mediate increased virulence in Staphylococcus aureus. Nat Microbiol. 2017 Jan 23;2:16257. doi: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.257
8. Winstel V, Kühner P, Rohde H, Peschel A. Genetic engineering of untransformable coagulase-negative staphylococcal pathogens. Nat Protoc. 2016 May;11(5):949-59. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2016.058
9. Winstel V, Kühner P, Salomon F, Larsen J, Skov R, Hoffmann W, Peschel A, Weidenmaier C. Wall teichoic acid glycosylation governs Staphylococcus aureus nasal colonization. mBio. 2015 Jun 30;6(4). pii: e00632-15. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00632-15
10. Winstel V, Liang C, Sanchez-Carballo P, Steglich M, Munar M, Bröker BM, Penades JR, Nubel U, Holst O, Dandekar T, Peschel A, Xia G. Wall teichoic acid structure governs horizontal gene transfer between major bacterial pathogens. Nat Commun. 2013;4:2345. doi: 10.1038/ncomms3345

Here you can find all ILH-publications

Group Members

Post Docs: Faidad Khan

Doctoral Students: Mathilda Bienek, Dorothea Bünsow, Yiyang Cai, Felix Gonther, Ev Inken Haack, Isabel Witzel

Technical Assistants: Verena Winstel