Ursula Wiedermann (born 5 August 1965) is an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

medical scientist who has made significant contributions in the field of

allergies Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include Allergic rhinitis, hay fever, Food allergy, food al ...

and of

cancer immunotherapy Cancer immunotherapy (immuno-oncotherapy) is the stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer, improving the immune system's natural ability to fight the disease. It is an application of the basic research, fundamental research of cancer im ...

. She is currently Professor of Vaccinology at the

Medical University of Vienna The Medical University of Vienna (MedUni Wien, German language, German: ''Medizinische Universität Wien'') is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It is the direct successor to the faculty of medicine at the University of Vienna, foun ...

. Wiedermann's work in the field of

B cell B cells, also known as B lymphocytes, are a type of the lymphocyte subtype. They function in the humoral immunity component of the adaptive immune system. B cells produce antibody molecules which may be either secreted or inserted into the plasm ...

peptide Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. A polypeptide is a longer, continuous, unbranched peptide chain. Polypeptides that have a molecular mass of 10,000 Da or more are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty am ...

vaccines led to the creation of HER-Vaxx, an

immunotherapy Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as ''activation immunotherapies,'' while immunotherap ...

for the treatment of

HER-2 Receptor tyrosine-protein kinase erbB-2 is a protein that normally resides in the membranes of cells and is encoded by the ''ERBB2'' gene. ERBB is abbreviated from erythroblastic oncogene B, a gene originally isolated from the avian genome. The ...

-positive cancers. This vaccine is currently being taken into mid-stage clinical development in

gastric cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a malignant tumor of the stomach. It is a cancer that develops in the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes ...

by the biotech company Imugene, where Wiedermann is Chief Scientific Officer.

Background

After obtaining an MD degree from the Medical University of Vienna, Wiedermann gained a PhD in Immunology at the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, where the focus of her PhD work was mucosal immunity and vaccination. After returning to the Medical University of Vienna Wiedermann researched mucosal vaccination against allergic diseases and later began to look at vaccine development against infectious diseases and tumours as well as explore the issues of immune responsiveness and immune failures upon vaccination. Wiedermann became head of Vienna's Institute of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine in 2004 and was named Professor of Vaccinology in 2006.

Allergy research

A theme of Wiedermann's allergy research has been the treatment of allergies via mucosal tolerance induction with recombinant allergens, probiotics or other microbes. For a key 2001 paper in the ''International Archives of Allergy and Immunology'' Wiedermann used recombinant fragments of the birch pollen allergen Bet v I to induce mucosal tolerance in a mouse model of birch pollen allergy. In 2008 the Wiedermann lab challenged the '

microflora Microbiota are the range of microorganisms that may be commensal, mutualistic, or pathogenic found in and on all multicellular organisms, including plants. Microbiota include bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, and viruses, and have been found ...

hypothesis', which holds that altered microflora contributed to allergies, by showing that Bet v 1 could induce mucosal tolerance in mice regardless of the presence or absence of microflora. In 2009 the Wiedermann lab provided some supporting evidence for the

hygiene hypothesis In medicine, the hygiene hypothesis states that early childhood exposure to particular microorganisms (such as the gut flora and helminth parasites) protects against allergies by properly tuning the immune system. In particular, a lack of such e ...

of allergies by showing that infection with the intracellular parasite ''

Toxoplasma gondii ''Toxoplasma gondii'' () is a species of parasitic alveolate that causes toxoplasmosis. Found worldwide, ''T. gondii'' is capable of infecting virtually all warm-blooded animals, but members of the cat family (felidae) are the only known d ...

'' could prevent allergic immune responses in birch pollen allergic mice. In 2011 the Wiedermann lab showed in mice that

probiotics Probiotics are live microorganisms that provide health benefits when consumed, generally by improving or restoring the microbiota in the Gut microbiota, gut. Probiotics are considered GRAS, generally safe to consume, but may cause bacteria– ...

could have anti-allergic effects against multiple allergens. In 2012 the Wiedermann lab showed that a

fusion protein Fusion proteins or chimeric (kī-ˈmir-ik) proteins (literally, made of parts from different sources) are proteins created through the joining of two or more genes that originally coded for separate proteins. Translation of this '' fusion gene'' ...

containing several allergens could treat birch pollen-related food allergy, in which patients are allergic to homologues of Bet v I. Also in 2012 the Wiedermann lab showed in mice that perinatal administration of ''

Lactobacillus paracasei ''Lacticaseibacillus paracasei ''(commonly abbreviated as ''Lc. paracasei'') is a gram-positive, homofermentative species of lactic acid bacteria that are commonly used in dairy product fermentation and as probiotic cultures. ''Lc. paracasei'' i ...

'' to pregnant and lactating mothers could protect against the development of airway inflammation in offspring.

Cancer immunotherapy research

Beginning around 2004 Wiedermann began to working on the technology that evolved into HER-Vaxx, a

cancer immunotherapy that could induce an antibody response targeting HER-2 overexpressing tumours. Following on from favourable pre-clinical data, Wiedermann et al. ran a small 10-patient safety study of HER-Vaxx in ten patients with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, albeit with low HER-2 expression. This study found the vaccine to be safe, with no observed cardiotoxicity. The patients developed anti-HER-2 antibodies and ''in vitro'', those anti-HER-2 antibodies showed potent anti-tumour activity. Also ''in vitro'', blood from the patients carried markers of a cellular immune response such as

IL-2 The Ilyushin Il-2 (Russian language, Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a Ground attack aircraft, ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the World War II, Second World War. The word ''shturmovík'' (C ...

IFN-γ Interferon gamma (IFNG or IFN-γ) is a dimerized soluble cytokine that is the only member of the type II class of interferons. The existence of this interferon, which early in its history was known as immune interferon, was described by E. F. ...

and

TNF-α Tumor necrosis factor (TNF), formerly known as TNF-α, is a chemical messenger produced by the immune system that induces inflammation. TNF is produced primarily by activated macrophages, and induces inflammation by binding to its receptors o ...

(meaning that ultimately patients could be expected to develop T cells to kill the cancer cells, and not just antibodies). The vaccine took down the ‘T reg’ cell count in the patients, potentially indicating an overcoming of the cancer’s immunoresistance. In 2012 a start-up company called Biolife Science was incorporated to develop this immunotherapy. Early-stage funding was secured from Australian and US investors in 2013, after which Biolife was taken public in December 2013 in a

reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...

of an Australian drug development company called Imugene, whose name was retained after the merger. Wiedermann joined Imugene's Scientific Advisory Board in January 2014 and was named Chief Scientific Officer of Imugene in June 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiedermann, Ursula Living people 1965 births 21st-century Austrian scientists Vaccinologists Academic staff of the University of Vienna Austrian medical researchers Austrian immunologists Scientists from Vienna 20th-century Austrian women physicians 20th-century Austrian physicians 21st-century Austrian women physicians 21st-century Austrian physicians