(Vienna, 10 July 2023) Inga Koneczny, neuroscientist at the Department of Neuropathology and Neurochemistry, Department of Neurology at MedUni Vienna, has successfully obtained a highly funded grant from the EU’s European Research Executive Agency. The IgG4-TREAT project is a training program for doctoral students in the field of research into specific autoimmune diseases. Inga Koneczny is responsible for coordinating and managing the project as “consortium coordinator”.
The project includes an international consortium, researchers from Austria, France, Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Turkey and Italy are working together. The funding amount is 2.6 million euros, of which 0.54 million euros will go to MedUni Vienna.
IgG4 autoimmune diseases (IgG4-AID) are rare but collectively represent an important group of serious diseases that affect many different organs, eg skin, brain, nerves and kidneys in patients who often do not respond to current treatments. Examples of IgG4-AID are myasthenia gravis with MuSK antibodies, pemphigus vulgaris, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, or certain forms of autoimmune encephalitis. IgG4-AID share commonalities that point to a common underlying immunopathogenesis that makes a common approach possible and necessary to identify new therapeutic targets and test new treatment strategies.
Inga Koneczny and her colleagues hypothesize that genetic risk factors and a disturbed immune response can lead to an increased susceptibility to the production of antibodies against the body’s own proteins. These belong to a special subclass called IgG4, which is usually harmless but can cause disease in these patients by interfering with normal body functions.
“We are the first consortium aiming to comparatively study IgG4-AID, including pathogenic IgG4, and the cells, molecules and mechanisms involved in the production of IgG4 autoantibodies. We use an exploratory multi-omics approach in combination with the latest cellular and molecular biology methods,” explains Inga Koneczny. To do this, researchers will establish a new humanized mouse model of IgG4-AID to develop and test a novel immunoapheresis-based therapy aimed at providing immediate relief for all patients with IgG4-AID.
The innovative training program combines university research-based, multidisciplinary training with state-of-the-art web-based teaching and personal mentorship from both academic and non-academic sectors. The objective is to promote a new generation of IgG4-AID specialists qualified for innovative multidisciplinary translational research focused on the development of biomedical products, thus opening careers in academia and also in industry.
About Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions & Support to Experts
REA.A – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions & Support to Experts is a specific activity of the European Union Research and Innovation Framework Program known as Horizon Europe. It is a funding program that aims to support cutting-edge research and researcher mobility in Europe. The MSCA Doctoral Networks focus specifically on promoting doctoral programs and support educational networks that develop research projects for doctoral students in collaboration with different partners.
The MSCA Doctoral Networks enable doctoral students to conduct research in international and interdisciplinary settings. They offer a wide range of training and development activities to support PhD students in developing their skills, knowledge and career opportunities. Networks are formed by consortiums of institutions such as universities, research centers and companies to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing.
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Inga Koneczny is a project manager in the Department of Neuropathology and Neurochemistry at the Univ. Neurology Clinic. She studied molecular biology at the University of Vienna and later completed her doctoral studies in clinical neuroscience at the University of Oxford. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University (until 2014) and Maastricht University (until 2016). During her doctorate, she was already researching the autoantibodies of patients with myasthenia gravis. She continued her research into the disease at Yale and Maastricht Universities. Upon her return, she took up a postdoctoral position in November 2016 at the then Clinical Institute of Neurology in the working group of Romana Höftberger, with whom she worked on the development of innovative test methods for the discovery of new antineuronal autoantibodies. She has received distinguished grants for her research achievements (DOC fFORTE from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Erwin-Schrödinger Fellowship from the FWF). In 2018, she managed to win a prestigious design from the FWF’s Hertha Firnberg. She is also the author or co-author of 27 scientific publications.