“From Labs to Likes”: iImmune Goes Viral 

In 2022 iIm­mune Weekly was founded by Vivienne Tschurl (née Riekher), an alum­nus of the Elite Grad­uate Pro­gram “Inte­grated Im­munology”. She want­ed to intro­duce a stu­dent-led plat­form for sci­ence com­muni­cation and crea­tivity, some­thing that en­couraged stu­dents to share their ideas and in-ter­ests in a fun envi­ron­ment. Her vision was to allow stu­dents to fully em­brace their scien­tific self, learn new skills, and dis­cover some­thing dif­ferent out­side of the lab. 

Since its incep­tion, iIm­mune Weekly has grown, with every new cohort of stu­dents con­trib­uting their own ideas and flair. In 2025, the group reached an excit­ing new mile­stone, releas­ing the inau­gural epi­sode of their new pod­cast, Im­mu­noTea Time! In this pod­cast, the hosts Paula and Ben chat with re­searchers in Er­langen about their work, expe­rienc­es in sci­ence, and more, end­ing each epi­sode with a signa­ture ques­tion called “The Last Sip”. 

As a mem­ber of the Writ­ers Club, iIm­mune stu­dents prac­tice their scien­tific com­muni­cation skills in a friendly, low-stress envi­ron­ment. The stu­dents gain expe­rience with social media and con­tent crea­tion, pre­pare en­gag­ing and eye-catching posts for the pub­lic, and prac­tice dis­sect­ing scien­tific papers to share the most im­portant de­tails. Not to men­tion, hav­ing fun along the way!

The at­mosphere in the Writ­ers Club is ani­mat­ed, pas­sionate, and full of ener­gy. There’s nev­er a dull mo­ment — new ideas are al­ways flow­ing, and the focus on crea­tivity, growth, and public out­reach is stronger than ever. These com­mit­ted writ­ers aim to pass on the spirit of the club to the next gen­era­tion of stu­dents, and keep the con­tent com­ing! The iIm­mune Writ­ers Club is also on Insta­gram at @iImmuneFAU, where you can find regu­lar up­dates in­clud­ing en­gag­ing reels, posts, and pod­cast epi­sodes. 

Text: Avanti Karkhanis & Dr. Anja Glanz, Elite Graduate Program “Integrated Immunology”