Ondrej Stepanek is an expert in the field of T cell receptor (TCR) signaling and adaptive immunity. He has more than 15 years of experience in research on T cell biology, spanning molecular mechanisms of receptor signaling, thymic development, and effector and regulatory T cell responses. Following his doctoral training at Charles University and the Institute of Molecular Genetics (IMG) in Prague, he pursued postdoctoral research at the University Hospital Basel, where he made fundamental contributions to our understanding of TCR tolerance mechanisms.
Since establishing the Laboratory of Adaptive Immunity at IMG in 2016, Dr. Stepanek has developed an internationally recognized research program that dissects how T cells integrate signals from their receptors and co-receptors to make fate decisions. His group has uncovered unique roles of co-receptor–bound LCK in helper and cytotoxic T cells, identified a new IL-17 receptor subunit critical for T cell-mediated autoimmune pathology, and revealed novel mechanisms governing self-tolerance and functional T-cell diversity.
To directly connect mechanism to physiology, his team makes extensive use of animal models, including syngeneic tumor models, autoimmune models driven by IL-17 signaling, and thymic development models elucidating lineage choice and co-receptor/LCK control of self-reactivity. These approaches have enabled the lab to bridge molecular immunology with disease-relevant biology.
Dr. Stepanek is the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant (2019) and an ERC Consolidator Grant (2025), the only ERC grants in the field of immunity and immunotherapy (LS6) ever awarded in Czechia, and an EMBO Installation Grant. He is also a laureate of the J.E. Purkyne Fellowship of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Eastern Star Award of the European Federation of Immunological Societies. His laboratory regularly publishes in prestigious journals such as Nature Immunology, Nature Communications, EMBO Journal, eLife, and actively collaborates across Europe and beyond.
In addition to leading cutting-edge research, Dr. Stepanek is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of immunologists, having supervised more than 15 PhD and MSc students. He teaches immunology courses at Charles University and serves on national and international evaluation panels. He is regularly invited to speak at international conferences and seminars.
At the ImmunoBridge 2026 conference, Dr. Stepanek will deliver a keynote lecture titled “Signaling pathways shape the outcomes of T-cell fate choices.”
Katarzyna studied biotechnology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and subsequently earned her PhD in biomedicine at the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University in Sweden. She completed postdoctoral training in immunology at the Technical University of Denmark in Copenhagen and in virology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany.
Since 2024, Katarzyna has been a tenure-track assistant professor and research group leader in stromal cell biology at the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna in Austria. Her research integrates expertise in fibroblast biology, immunology, and virology to investigate how stromal cells contribute to immunomodulation and host–microbe interactions.
In her keynote talk, Lymphoid Tissue Fibroblasts in Immunity and Infection, Katarzyna will discuss the emerging roles of stromal fibroblasts in shaping immune responses and influencing outcomes of infection, highlighting new perspectives and potential therapeutic opportunities.