Steffen Jung

Born in Homburg/ Saar, Germany, Steffen Jung performed his Ph.D. studies at the University of Cologne, under the guidance of Andreas Radbruch at the Institute of Genetics headed by Klaus Rajewsky. Specifically, he used the then newly introduced gene targeting technology to define cis-acting control elements in immunoglobulin class switch recombination. In 1993, Steffen moved to Israel and joined the laboratory of Yinon Ben-Neriah at the Lautenberg Center (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) studying transcription factors and kinases in T cell signaling. In 1997, Steffen went to New York for a post-doc in the laboratory of Dan Littman at the Skirball Institute for Molecular Pathogenesis, NYU Medical Center. There he focused on the chemokine receptor CX3CR1. Specifically, he generated CX3CR1gfp reporter mice that became instrumental to study murine monocyte subsets and microglia. Furthermore, he developed in collaboration with Richard Lang a novel diphtheria toxin receptor (DTR)-based cell ablation strategy that allowed the study of dendritic cells (DC) in their in vivo context (CD11c-DTR mice).

In 2002, Steffen returned to Israel and joined the Weizmann Institute. Current work of the Jung lab focuses on in vivo aspects of mononuclear phagocytes, including development and differential functions of monocytes and macrophages. Specifically, the team applies intra-vital imaging, and conditional cell and gene ablation, combined with advanced genomic analysis to investigate these cells in physiological health and disease context. Recent focus is given to the study of monocyte subsets, monocyte-derived intestinal macrophages and brain macrophages, including microglia and CNS-border associated perivascular macrophages.