First Publication from the Seelig Group at BIIE: A Comprehensive Human Cytokine Dictionary

BIIE faculty member Georg Seelig and postdoctoral researcher Lukas Oesinghaus have co-authored a major new study describing the first comprehensive "Human Cytokine Dictionary" – a systematic catalog of how human immune cells respond to cytokine signals.

The study, a collaboration with Parse Biosciences and Fabian Theis's group at Helmholtz Munich, analyzed nearly 10 million human blood immune cells from 12 donors treated with 90 different cytokines. This dataset reveals how different immune cell types respond to key signaling molecules that orchestrate immune responses.

"Cytokines are central to immune function, yet we've lacked a unified reference for their effects across human cell types," said Prof. Seelig, a corresponding author. "This resource fills that gap and provides a foundation for understanding cytokine biology in disease."

The team demonstrated the dictionary's utility by identifying cytokine signatures in autoimmune diseases including lupus and multiple sclerosis, as well as in lung cancer. They also released huCIRA, an open-source software package enabling other researchers to apply these findings to their own datasets.

The study, currently in preprint, is available on bioRxiv.