Devic mouse: a spontaneous double-transgenic mouse model of human opticospinal multiple sclerosis and autoimmune T-B cell cooperation

Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich die vorliegende Dissertation mit Ausnahme der Immunhistochemie selbständig und ohne unerlaubte Hilfe habe. Ich habe weder anderweitig versucht, eine Dissertation oder Teile einer Dissertation einzureichen beziehungsweise einer Prüfungskommission vorzulegen, noch eine Doktorprüfung durchzuführen. Acknowledgements At the outset, I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to Prof. Dr. Hartmut Wekerle for offering me a graduate fellowship that enabled me to work in his department. I would like to thank him for his critical comments and continuous support. While instilling a tough scientific attitude in me, he was also able to maintain a relaxed atmosphere in the lab, which made it not only stimulating to work there but also fun. I am also grateful to Dr. Andreas Holz who supervised this thesis. As my supervisor, he constantly supported, encouraged, and taught me how to focus my research. His constructive comments and constant encouragement brought out the best in me. Our hour-long discussions have sharpened my thinking about scientific problems. My special thanks to Prof. Dr. Hans Lassmann for the excellent histological analysis. I would like to thank Bernadette Pöllinger for her helpfulness and patient open ear for my problems. The list of my indebtedness to her is endless, especially for her help in correcting my thesis. My sincere thanks to Irene Arnold-Ammer for her excellent technical assistance. She also helped to maintain the relaxed atmosphere in the lab with her sense of humor. I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Weiß for agreeing to be an examiner of my thesis. I wish to extend my thanks to PD Dr. evaluating my thesis. I thank Dr. Anjali (IISc, Bangalore) and my dear friends Raghu, Madhavi, and Rajesh for helping me to come to Germany. My life would have been very difficult without my friends Sham, Sona, to mention only a few. Special thanks go to my wife Jeeva for her love and care.