AG Leithner
Alexander LEITHNER, PhD
Assistant Professor of Immunology, Group Leader
Physiochemical Principles of Immune Interfaces Lab Department of Biosciences and Medical Biology, Hellbrunner Straße 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Alex is a cell biologist and immunologist with a deep interest in the mechanistic principles that govern how cells interact, communicate and make decisions. His fascination with the mmunological synapse, high-end imaging, and the cytoskeleton dates back to his PhD in Michael Sixt’s lab at IST Austria, where he investigated immune cell migration and dendritic cell–T cell contacts using advanced microscopy and reductionist model systems.
During his postdoctoral work in Michael L. Dustin’s group at the University of Oxford, Alex established next-generation reductionist platforms to study signaling events at immune cell interfaces with precise control over ligand mobility. In Oxford, he also expanded his research into the field of cancer immunotherapy, focusing in particular on bispecific T cell engagers (BiTEs). His work uncovered structural and physicochemical determinants of BiTE function, revealing how molecular architecture, synapse organization and early signaling dynamics shape their cytotoxic potency.
Across these experiences, Alex has developed a research program at the intersection of biophysics, immunology and synthetic biology, aimed at uncovering how physicochemical properties of cell surfaces shape immune recognition, signaling, and cytotoxicity — and how these principles can be leveraged to design more effective immune-based therapies.
Daniel ČAPEK, PhD
Senior Scientist
Physiochemical Principles of Immune Interfaces Lab
Department of Biosciences and Medical Biology, Hellbrunner Straße 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Daniel is a cell biologist with a background in developmental biology and cell signalling. In his PhD in Carl-Philipp Heisenberg’s lab at IST Austria he used optogenetic tools to manipulate mesenchymal cell migration in vivo. His postdoc research led him to Patrick Müllers‘ Systems Biology of Development and Disease lab at the Friedrich Miescher laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen and the University of Konstanz, where his work focused on signaling pathways and their robustness to chemical and envrionmental perturbations, applying biophysical microscopy, genome editing and AI-based image analysis. He joined the Leithner lab in October 2025.
Betül Gül
Student Assistant
Copyrights: Alexander Leithner, Daniel Čapek respectively
