The Clinical Institute of Pathology at the Medical University of Vienna is one of the foremost Pathology research institutes in the world. Located in the General Hospital of Vienna the Institute’s clinical workload exceeds 35000 histological requests resulting in processing of over 400 000 investigations per year at the forefront of diagnostic methodology including conventional histopathology and cytopathology, immunohistochemistry, molecular pathology, genetics, electron microscopy and serology/immunology. The members of the Institute not only provide routine clinical diagnostic services to the community of Vienna but also offer centralised and specialised services for instance in Nephropatholgoy, Hematopathology and Lung pathology and develop novel approaches such as molecular analyses and cytogenetics. The renal pathology and immunology research group within the Institute has an unrivalled reputation for ultrastructural and biological cell studies of the kidney in health and disease and made important contributions to recent advances in the understanding of severe (auto)immunulogical and renal diseases, such as Membranous Nephropathy, Vasculitis and Transplant rejection and are among the most sought after researchers in the world.

Main tasks attributed in the project

The investigators of MedUni Vienna, lead by Renate Kain, will co-ordinate the RELENT project and execute the work outlined in WPs 01 – 06.

Main personnel involved in the project

Prof. Renate Kain, M.D., Ph.D., the coordinator of RELENT, received her undergraduate medical and postgraduate training in histopathology, cytopathology, microbiology and molecular and genetic diagnostics at the University of Vienna. She is an expert renal histopathologist with a special interest in small vessel vasculitis and extensive expertise in cell biology, biochemistry, immunology and glycobiology. She obtained her PhD from the University of Aberdeen working on proteomic analysis auf antigenic targets in autoimmunity in the world class proteomics department. She made the original discovery of autoantibodies to human lysosomal membrane protein-2 (hLAMP-2) in vasculitis, and has recently shown they are pathogenic. Dr. Kain has previously shown herself to be highly effective in promoting collaboration between research centers throughout the US and Europe. She has several years expertise in managing an independent research laboratory funded through external grant income. Dr Kain has co-ordinated the training programme of the EC funded initial training network TranSVIR led by Prof. Rees and co-ordinated the EC funded project INTRICATE.

Virginie Hubert (MSc) is a PhD student at the clinical Institute of Pathology. Throughout her MSc in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology (University of Namur, Belgium), she joined various projects in Belgium (Molecular Physiology Laboratory, University of Namur) and in the UK (Centre for Inflammation Research, Queen’s Medical Research Institute, The University of Edinburgh). After completion of her master degree she applied successfully for a Marie Curie PhD studentship for Early Stage Researchers in the Renal Immunology and Nephropathology Group at the Clinical Institute of Pathology (Medical University of Vienna). There she had the opportunity to apply in vivo skills previously acquired and to expand her knowledge in molecular and cell biology as well as in live cell imaging. In collaboration with the Core facility (Medical University of Vienna) she has recently demonstrated the role of LAMP-2 in macroautophagy and currently investigates the underlying mechanism connecting LAMP-2 and autophagy as well as its role in cell death.

Dr. Dario Armando Leone (PhD) is a postdoc who received his bachelor degree in Biotechnology in 2006 at University of Palermo with 108/110 and his Master degree in Molecular Biotechnology 2009 at the University of Bologna with 107/110. After the initial training performed at the Netherland Cancer Institute (NKI-AVL) in Amsterdam in the group of Tom Schumacher; in September 2010, Dario worked on his PhD at the Medical University of Vienna (MUW) in the group of Prof. Kain. In June 2016 Dario obtained his PhD in Immunology discussing his thesis about the role of LAMP-2 in the antigen presentation machinery of Human Monocytes Derived Dendritic cell, defining a novel endocytic pathway that is deregulated by anti-LAMP-2 antibody circulating in Focal Necrotizing Glomerulo Nephritis (FNGN) patient. In particular, anti-LAMP-2 antibody promotes the dissemination of the target molecules of the classical Anti Neutrophils Cytoplasmatic Antibody (ANCA); Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and Proteinanse-3 (Pr3) altering their immunogenicity and influencing the balance between tolerance and immunity.