The laboratory of Prof. Gerd Meyer zu Hörste, MD (the MzH lab), is part of the Department of Neurology at University Hospital Münster and the University of Münster in Germany.
We study the complex interactions between the immune and nervous systems in health and neurological disease. A particular focus of our research is to understand where immune responses take place surrounding the nervous system, how they differ between anatomical compartments, and how local tissue environments shape the phenotype and function of immune cells.

Our research focuses on three major questions:

1. How do immune cells interact with cells of the nervous system and its border tissues?
   We investigate immune-cell interactions within the meninges, cerebrospinal fluid, brain parenchyma and peripheral nerves, with particular interest in the cellular and molecular signals that orchestrate local immune responses.
2. How are immune responses organized across different compartments of the nervous system?
   We study how adaptive and innate immune responses differ between peripheral blood, cerebrospinal fluid, lymph nodes and nervous-system tissues, and how these compartment-specific responses contribute to neuroinflammation and neurological complications of immune therapies.
3. How can new technologies improve our understanding of neuroimmune disease?
   We develop and apply advanced single-cell/-nuclei, spatial and multi-omic approaches to characterize immune and nervous-system cells directly in human samples and experimental models.

Our work spans multiple sclerosis, autoimmune encephalitis, inflammatory and degenerative neuropathies, neuromuscular disease and treatment-associated neuroinflammation. By combining mechanistic experimental studies with deeply characterized human samples, we aim to define general principles of nervous-system immunity while identifying disease-specific mechanisms with diagnostic or therapeutic relevance. Information on our most recent projects and publications can be found here.

Our research is supported by national and European funding agencies, including the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Hans und Ria Messer Foundation, and European research programmes including Horizon 2020.

Börsch AL, Riethues F, Schulte-Mecklenbeck A, Wang X, Heming M, Lu IN, Müller-Miny L, Wiendl H, Gross CC, Bernard-Valnet R, Meyer Zu Hörste G. A CSF disease-associated macrophage signature defines progressive multiple sclerosis. J Neuroinflammation. 2026 May 13;23(1):156. doi: 10.1186/s12974-026-03861-9

Heming M*, Börsch AL*, Wolbert J*, Thomas C, Mausberg AK, Szepanowski F, Eggert B, Lu IN, Tietz J, Dienhart F, Meschnark M, Strecker JK, Glatza M, Thomas C, Gmahl N, Dambietz C, Müther M, Uerschels AK, Keyvani K, Minnerup J, Doppler K, Üçeyler N, Aprea J, Dahl A, Stassart R, Fledrich R, Wiendl H, Sommer C, Stettner M, Meyer Zu Hörste G. Multi-omic identification of perineurial hyperplasia and lipid-associated nerve macrophages in human polyneuropathies. Nat Commun. 2025 Aug 23;16(1):7872. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-62964-8. (contributed equally)

Lu IN*, Müller-Miny L*, Krekeler C, Cheung PF, Antonopoulou G, Jeibmann A, Schulte-Mecklenbeck A, Kerl K, Call S, Reicherts C, Bleckmann A, Stelljes M, Lenz G, Wiendl H, Meyer Zu Hörste G*, Grauer OM*. The CXCL16/CXCR6 axis is linked to immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. Genome Med. 2025 Jun 30;17(1):71. doi: 10.1186/s13073-025-01498-6. (contributed equally)

Esser D*, Müller-Miny L*, Heming M*, Paunovic M, van Duijn M, Abrante Cabrera L, Mair KM, Strippel C, Räuber S, Dargvainiene J, Kovac S, Gross CC, Fransen N, van Steenhoven R, Körtvélyessy P, Stenzel W, Höftberger R, Bindels E, Bien CG, Wiendl H, Meuth SG, Bauer J, Melzer N, Titulaer MJ, Leypoldt F*, Meyer Zu Hörste G*; in cooperation with the EMC-AIE Study group. Activated αβ T and reduced mucosa-associated invariant T cells in LGI1- and CASPR2-encephalitis. Brain. 2025 Sep 3;148(9):3170-3183. doi: 10.1093/brain/awaf096.

Lu I-N, Fung-Yi Cheung P, Heming M, Thomas C, Giglio G, Leo M, Erdemir M, Wirth T, König S, Dambietz CA, Schroeter CB, Nelke C, Siveke JT, Ruck T, Klotz L, Haider C, Höftberger R, Kleinschnitz C, Wiendl H, Hagenacker T*, Meyer Zu Horste G*. Cell-mediated cytotoxicity within CSF and brain parenchyma in spinal muscular atrophy unaltered by nusinersen treatment. Nat Commun. 2024 May 15;15(1):4120. (contributed equally)

Beuker C*, Schafflick D*, Strecker J-K*, Heming M, Li X, Wolbert J, Schmidt-Pogoda A, Thomas C, Kuhlmann T, Aranda-Pardos I, Gonzalez N-A, Kumar PA, Werner Y, Kilic E, Hermann DM, Wiendl H, Stumm R, Meyer Zu Hörste G, Minnerup J. Stroke induces disease-specific myeloid cells in the brain parenchyma and pia. Nat Commun. 2022 Feb 17;13(1):945. (* contributed equally)

Hartlehnert M, Börsch A-L, Li X, Burmeister M, Gerwien H, Schafflick D, Heming M, Lu I-N, Narayanan V, Strecker J-K, Kolz A, Peters A, Wu GF, Wiendl H, Sorokin L, Meyer Zu Horste G. Bcl6 controls meningeal Th17-B cell interaction in murine neuroinflammation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Sep 7;118(36):e2023174118.

First to identify a mechanism controlling meningeal, rather than parenchymal, T/B-cell interactions that promote neuroinflammation.

Schafflick D*, Wolbert J*, Heming M*, Thomas C, Hartlehnert M, Börsch A-L, Ricci A, Martín-Salamanca S, Li X, Lu I-N, Pawlak M, Minnerup J, Strecker J-K, Seidenbecher T, Meuth SG, Hidalgo A, Liesz A, Wiendl H, Meyer Zu Horste G. Single-cell profiling of CNS border compartment leukocytes reveals that B cells and their progenitors reside in non-diseased meninges. Nat Neurosci. 2021 Sep;24(9):1225-1234. (* contributed equally)

First to report that the dura layer of the meninges hosts abundant B cells and B cell progenitors. Revolutionary concept of the meninges supporting ectopic lymphopoiesis. Concurrently reported in Science (PMID 34083450) and Immunity (PMID 34626548).

Heming M, Li X, Räuber S, Mausberg AK, Börsch A-L, Hartlehnert M, Singhal A, Lu I-N, Fleischer M, Szepanowski F, Witzke O, Brenner T, Dittmer U, Yosef N, Kleinschnitz C, Wiendl H, Stettner M, Meyer Zu Hörste G. Neurological Manifestations of COVID-19 Feature T Cell Exhaustion and Dedifferentiated Monocytes in Cerebrospinal Fluid. Immunity. 2021 Jan 12;54(1):164-175.e6.

First to identify mechanisms driving neurological manifestations of COVID-19 infection by applying single cell RNA-sequencing to leukocytes in cerebrospinal fluid.

Schafflick D, Xu CA, Hartlehnert M, Cole M, Schulte-Mecklenbeck A, Lautwein T, Wolbert J, Heming M, Meuth SG, Kuhlmann T, Gross CC, Wiendl H, Yosef N, Meyer Zu Horste G. Integrated single cell analysis of blood and cerebrospinal fluid leukocytes in multiple sclerosis. Nat Commun. 2020 Jan 14;11(1):247.

First to report comparative single-cell transcriptomics of cerebrospinal fluid and blood leukocytes in patients with multiple sclerosis and controls.

Wolbert J, Li X, Heming M, Mausberg AK, Akkermann D, Frydrychowicz D, Fledrich R, Groeneweg L, Schulz C, Stettner M, Alonso Gonzalez N, Wiendl H, Stassart R, Meyer Zu Hörste G. Redefining the heterogeneity of peripheral nerve cells in health and autoimmunity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Apr 28;117(17):9466-9476.

Meyer Zu Horste G, Przybylski D, Schramm MA, Wang C, Schnell A, Lee Y, Sobel R, Regev A, Kuchroo VK. Fas Promotes T Helper 17 Cell Differentiation and Inhibits T Helper 1 Cell Development by Binding and Sequestering Transcription Factor STAT1. Immunity. 2018 Mar 20;48(3):556-569.e7.

Sereda MW*, Meyer zu Hörste G*, Suter U, Uzma N, Nave KA. Therapeutic administration of progesterone antagonist in a model of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT-1A). Nat Med. 2003 Dec;9(12):1533-7. (* equally contributing first author)
 

List of Publications at Pubmed.

List of Publications at  Research Gate

List of publications at Orcid.