Gunther Hartmann

Gunther Hartmann ( born December 7, 1966 in Leutkirch ) is a German physician and since 2007 Professor of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital of the University of Bonn.

Life

1986 graduated from Hartmann graduated from high school at the Salvator College in Bad Wurzach. Between 1986 and 1993 he studied medicine at the University of Ulm. He received his PhD in 1994 in the Department of Clinical Genetics, University of Ulm. From 1993 he was assistant physician at the Medical Clinic downtown (Peter Scriba ), the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich. 1998/99 he held a research as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Arthur Krieg, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, USA.

In 2001 the Habilitation at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology (Stefan Endres ) of the Medical Clinic in downtown Munich. In 2005, he became head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and 2007 the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology with central lab and study center at the University Hospital Bonn. Since 2008 he is Head of the Research Committee of the Medical Faculty BONFOR Bonn. In 2009 he was appointed "Cancer therapy trials " of the German Cancer Aid in the panel of experts. Since 2010 he is speaker of the Cluster of Excellence " ImmunoSensation ", which is funded by the DFG since November 2012. From 2011 to 2012, he was president of the international "Oligonucleotide Therapeutic Society ". 2013 he was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Research priorities

The scientific focus is in the field of immunology. While the acquired immune system is geared primarily to the recognition of the class of proteins, the detection of alien nucleic acids is based on the recognition by innate receptors. This area of ​​research, the immune recognition of nucleic acids, has more than 17 years of scientific focus of Hartmann. His work to 2012 has been awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize.

The group led by Hartmann has contributed to the understanding of several immune receptors responsible for immune recognition and defense against viruses and intracellular bacteria for the immune defense against tumors and for the development of autoimmune diseases. 1996 has been observed that short-chain DNA oligonucleotides lead to activation of the immune system. In 1999, the molecular patterns (so-called CpG motif ) was identified, is recognized by the microbial DNA by the human immune system ( recognition of CpG DNA via Toll-like receptor 9, TLR9 ).

This was followed by work on the mechanism of action of CpG oligonucleotides in humans that in addition to the B- cell just another cell, the so-called plasmacytoid dendritic cell, the receptor responsible for TLR9 expressed and determines the immunological effect. CpG - DNA was the first molecularly defined stimulus for plasmacytoid dendritic cell activation. It was the division of CpG oligonucleotides in classes established CpG ( CpG A, B - CpG and CpG -C) and of the molecular mechanisms and the immunological activity of CpG - oligonucleotides. The erstpublizierte together with Arthur Krieg oligonucleotide ODN 2006 was clinically developed by Coley Pharmaceuticals and is currently in phase III clinical trials for the immunotherapy of tumors.

With the observation of the immune recognition of RNA in 2005 it was shown that siRNA ( small interfering RNA ) is detected over a wider Toll-like receptor, TLR7, sequence dependent, and this recognition results in an anti-viral immune response with production of IFN -alpha. This allows the identification of RNA motifs, which are recognized by TLR7 and the development of immunostimulatory oligonucleotides with novel modes of profiles. Combined with the technology of siRNA ( gene silencing ) here opens up a new field of oligonucleotide therapeutics to clinical development.

In the field of immune recognition of DNA were made by the group of Hartmann contributions to the identification and molecular characterization of CGA - STING pathway. This new pathway of DNA recognition explains the formation of autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus, which may occur as a result of sunlight into a butterfly rash.

This scientific issue is further processed in the context of the DFG Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation that Hartmann took over as speaker, as well as the German Centre for Infection Research ( DZIF ) of the Helmholtz Association. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( BMBF), GO-Bio project " RNA therapeutics " aims to develop a ligand for the activation of RIG- I for the treatment of melanoma and in the framework of a BMBF-funded spin-off ( ImmunOligo GmbH) to be tested in clinical trials. This project has won the 3rd place in the 2013 Science4Life competition.

Awards

  • 2000 " Young Master " of the German Society of Hematology and Oncology
  • 2000 Paul Martini Prize
  • 2004 Georg Heberer Award, Chiles Foundation, Portland
  • 2004 Ludwig Heilmeyer Award
  • 2004 Biofuture Award of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
  • 2007 Wilhelm- Vaillant Prize for Medicine Research
  • 2009 GoBio Award of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
  • 2011, Dr. Friedrich Sasse Gold Medal of the Berlin Medical Society
  • 2012 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
  • 2013 Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
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