Speakers
Our lecturers are actively involved in the different phases of translation including basic research, preclinical studies, and clinical studies. You profit from both the practical experience and theoretical background of lecturers working in academia, industry and regulatory agencies. Get to know these key opinion leaders and expand your professional network.
A - L
A
Arseniev, Lubomir Dr.; MHH
B
Barkow, Tom; MDSS
Batkai, Sandor Dr.; Cardio Pharmaceuticals GmbH
Baumann, Knut Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
Becker, Andrea; Verband der Chemischen Industrie
Blasczyk, Rainer Prof. Dr.; MHH
Bloching, Philipp; Desitin Arzneimittel GmbH
Bock von Wülfingen, Christiane; MHH
Braun, Armin Prof. Dr.; Fraunhofer ITEM
Brönstrup, Mark Prof. Dr.; Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung
Bunjes, Heike Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
C
Cordes, Ralf Dr.; Ascenion GmbH
D
Datoo, Mehreen; University of Oxford
Deichmann, Angelika Dr.; SKC Beratungsgesellschaft mbH
Doll, Theodor Prof. Dr.; MHH
Dübel, Stefan Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
E
Eiz-Vesper, Britta Prof. Dr.; MHH
F
Falk, Christine Prof. Dr.; MHH
Feldmeier, Hans-Georg Dr.; Bundesverband der Pharmazeutischen Industrie e.V.
Figueiredo, Constanca Prof. Dr.; MHH
Finke, Jan Henrik Dr.; TU Braunschweig
Fischer, Ina Dr.; MHH
G
Geib, Angelika; Pohl Boskamp
Gerdelmann, Jens Dr.; Fraunhofer ITEM
Grode, Leander Dr.; Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH (VPM)
H
Harder, Michael Dr.; corlife oHG
Haverich, Axel Prof. Dr.; MHH
Hesterkamp, Thomas Dr.; Deutsches Zentrum für Infektionsforschung
Heß, Simone Dr.; MHH
Hoffmann, Christine Dr.; TU Braunschweig
Hübner, Gabriele Dr.; Gewerbeaufsichtsamt Niedersachsen
Hust, Michael Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
J
Jäger, Cornelius; MHH
K
Kalinke, Ulrich Prof. Dr.; TWINCORE
Klöß, Stephan Dr.; MHH
Köhl, Ulrike Prof. Dr.; MHH
Kunick, Conrad Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
Kwade, Arno Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
L
Leupold, Mario; hannoverimpuls GmbH
Lindner, Bianca Dr.; corlife oHG
Lotz, Peter; MAYRFELD
M - Z
M
Mertz, Marcel Dr.; MHH
Mittelmaier, Roland; Reet – Unternehmen entwickeln
Möller, Ludger Dip.-Ing.; Medical Device Safety Service Hannover
Müller-Goymann, Christel Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
O
Ott, Ingo Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
P
Parzmair, Gerald Dr.; Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH (VPM)
Pisano, Fabio Dr.; Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH (VPM)
Pohlmann, Gerhard Dr.; Fraunhofer ITEM
Puschmann, Carmen Dr.; corlife
R
Rau, Thomas Dr.; MHH
Reichl, Stephan Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
Reinhardt, Jens Dr.; PEI Langen
S
Schambach, Axel Prof. Dr.; MHH
Scherer, Stefan Dr.; HZI
Schilling, Tobias Dr.; MHH
Schindler, Christoph Prof. Dr.; MHH Core Facility
Schneider, Christian Dr.; National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC)
Schwarz, Katharina Dr.; Fraunhofer ITEM
Schönermark, Matthias P. Univ.-Prof. Dr. med.; SKC Beratungsgesellschaft mbH
Seltsam, Axel Prof. Dr.; DRK Blutspendedienst NSTOB
Sewald, Katherina Dr.; Fraunhofer ITEM
Stadler, Marc Prof. Dr.; HZI
Stripecke, Renata Prof. Dr.; MHH
T
Taruttis, Stefan Dr.; Taruttis Patentanwaltskanzlei
Thiele, Susanne; HZI
Tonne, Jörn Dr.; Nordmark Arzneimittel GmbH & Co. KG
V
W
Wätzig, Hermann Prof. Dr.; TU Braunschweig
Weigt, Henning Dr.; Fraunhofer ITEM
Will, Heiner; medac GmbH
Z
Ziehr, Holger Dr.; Fraunhofer ITEM
Sandor Batkai
Dr. Sandor Batkai, MD, PhD, co-founder of Cardior Pharmaceuticals GmbH in Hannover, is currently Head of Competitive Intelligence and part of the clinical team at the company. He is an internationally recognized translational researcher in the cardiovascular field, specialized in oligonucleotide and RNA therapeutics pharmacology. Besides being a leading medical scientist with over 130 publications in high-ranking scientific journals, he is a certified expert in preclinical drug development. Before joining the biotech industry, he lead the Cardiovascular Phenotyping and Translational Strategies Group at IMTTS at the Hannover Medical School. Dr Batkai worked at the at US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda for several years where he headed the Cardiovalscular Phenotyping Core facility.
Knut Baumann
Prof. Dr. Knut Baumann is Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Technology Braunschweig, Germany. He received his PhD from the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Germany, and started his academic career at the University of Berne, Switzerland. His research focusses on chemoinformatics and chemometrics.
Andrea Becker
Andrea Becker studied law in Würzburg and Salamanca (Spain), specialising in labour and social law. She is a qualified lawyer and has many years of experience in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. For more than 15 years, she has been responsible for the area of health policy and the entire range of topics in the life sciences and the pharmaceutical and medical products industry at the Verband der Chemischen Industrie e.V. LV Nord.
Rainer Blasczyk
Rainer Blasczyk is a full professor and chair of the Department for Transfusion Medicine at Hannover Medical School (MHH) since 1998. Rainer Blasczyk studied medicine at the Universities of Essen and Bochum where he received his Dr. med. After a clinical education in abdominal surgery at the University of Marburg, hematology and oncology at the University of Düsseldorf and transplantation immunology at the University of Essen he finished his medical specialization in transfusion medicine at the Humboldt-University of Berlin. His work focuses on structural, functional and clinical research of the human MHC for allogeneic, adoptive and regenerative cell therapy including genetic engineering of primary cells and stem cells to decrease their immunogenicity. His translational work aims at improving molecular diagnostics, cellular immunotherapy, as well as stem cell, tissue and organ transplantation.
Philipp Bloching
Philipp Bloching studied human medicine and business administration at the University of Vienna from 2005 to 2012. After graduating, he worked at Novartis from 2013 to 2017 in the area of healthcare policy (market access) and marketing. He then moved to Merck leading different teams in key account management and medicine. In his last position with Merck he served as Medical Director of Merck Taiwan before joining Desitin Arzneimittel GmbH in May 2020. As CEO of the company, Philipp Bloching is responsible for marketing & sales, business development, R&D, production & logistics, supply chain and quality. The medium-sized pharmaceutical company based in Hamburg specializes in products for the treatment of neurological and rare diseases.
Since 2022, Philipp Bloching has been a board member of the BPI Regional Association North. In addition, since 2022 he has also served on the board of the AKG e.V., the voluntary self-regulatory organization in the pharmaceutical industry with the largest number of members.
Christiane Bock von Wülfingen
Christiane Bock von Wülfingen studied social sciences at the University of Hanover, specializing in health policy, law and social psychology. Before and during her studies, she worked as an intensive care nurse at the Hannover Medical School (MHH). She completed postgraduate studies/further training in the field of media: production, projects and public relations (Hanover/Berlin) and has many years of experience in the fields of consulting, development of further training concepts, project management, law, leadership and management. From 2009 - 2014 she was head of the MHHpersonalAkademie. In 2015 she will head the focus on research and teaching, conception of career paths and further education for scientists and physicians, the newly founded MHH Weiterbildungsakademie (WBA). Since 2018, she is in charge of the "Stabsstelle für Forschungsförderung, Wissens- und Technologietransfer" (FWT) together with Dr. Heß. She is the MHH's transfer officer and contact person for all matters relating to translation.
Armin Braun
Prof. Armin Braun is Division Director of the Preclinical Pharmacology and In Vitro Toxicology of the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine. His main focus is the preclinical development and evaluation of new drugs for airway diseases. Clients are the major pharmaceutical and biotech companies from Europe, US and Japan. Therefore he has extensive experience with animal models of lung disease like asthma, COPD of lung infection. In addition, immunotoxicology is an important field of work. Based on these knowledge alternative in vitro models are developed e.g. using precision cut lung slice (PCLS) technique for testing lung toxicology and immune regulation. Immunological diagnosis in clinical studies is performed by immunohistological staining techniques using confocal microscopy, flow cytometric analysis and biomarker quantification in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and blood. His work is funded by different EU and federal research agencies. He is member of the German center of lung research (DZL) and was active in the collaborative research network SFB587 “Immune reactions of the lung in infection and allergy” where the interaction of nervous system and immune reactions in asthma was the focus of research. Prof. Braun has a strong background in basic research and is involved in several public funded research collaborations e.g. with the Medical School Hannover (MHH) where he is acting as a Professor. International collaborations include vaccine development together with the Fraunhofer CMB in the US. He has published more than 100 reports in international journals.
Mark Brönstrup
Mark Brönstrup studied chemistry and obtained his PhD from the TU Berlin in 1999. He joined Aventis in 2000 as a lab head for mass spectrometry and spent a research sabbatical with S. P. Gygi at Harvard Medical School in 2003. Between 2005 and 2010, he was leading the Natural Products Science section at Sanofi Aventis in Frankfurt. Between 2010 and 2013, he was managing sections dealing with biomarkers, bioimaging & biological assays. Since December 2013, he has been head of the Chemical Biology Department at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig and W3 Professor at the University of Hannover. His research is focused on the discovery, the characterization and the optimization of novel antiinfective drugs.
Heike Bunjes
Heike Bunjes studied Pharmacy in Braunschweig and received her PhD in Pharmaceutics from the University of Jena in 1998. Since 2007 she is professor for Pharmaceutical Technology at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. Her research is mainly concerned with the formulation of poorly water soluble drug substances by employing nanoparticulate and nanostructured delivery systems. She is a co-founder and board member of the Center of Pharmaceutical Engineering (Zentrum für Pharmaverfahrenstechnik – PVZ), a research center of the TU Braunschweig.
Britta Eiz-Vesper
Britta Eiz-Vesper is the leader of the Research and Development department of the Institute for Transfusion Medicine and leader of the group “Molecular Immunotherapy”. She studied biology at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Greifswald and received her PhD in 1996 in the Institute for Virology at Hannover Medical School. Scine 1999 she worked at the Institute for Transfusion Medicine with a strong focus in the establishment of allogeneic cell-based therapies. In 2007 she finished her habilitation in Molecular Immunotherapy and became W2 professor in 2009. In 2012 she and her group established the worldwide first allogeneic T-cell donor registry alloCELL (www.allocell.org) for the purpose of identifying suitable T cells donors, providing personalized antiviral T-cell immunotherapeutics to patients in need, and monitoring programs for pathogen-specific T cells in patients after transplantation. Britta Eiz-Vesper is one of the Qualified Persons in the Institue and expert in clinical-scale T cell production and GMP T cell engineering technology. The manufacturing license was obtained for generating clinical-grade CMV-, ADV-, EBV- and multivirus-specific T-cell products as advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) according to the German Medicines Act (AMG) and clinical-grade antiviral T cells were generated from family and alloCELL donors.
Constança Figueiredo
Constança Figueiredo is leader of the group “Cell Therapy” at the Institute for Transfusion Medicine and the Excellence Cluster REBIRTH. She studied Biology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. After engaging a PhD program in Experimental Biology and Biomedicine, Constança Figueiredo joined the Institute for Transfusion Medicine at the Hannover Medical School (Prof. Dr. Rainer Blasczyk). In 2006, she graduated with a PhD in Cell Biology and Immunology. Since 2008, she is group leader with major interests in blood pharming (large-scale in vitro production of blood cell components) and the reduction of immunogenicity of allogeneic cell-based products to prevent rejection after transplantation. In 2014, she received the “Venia Legendi” for Experimental Transfusion Medicine. Figueiredo’s group developed an innovative strategy to prevent a humoral and cellular-mediated allogeneic rejection of donated or in vitro pharmed cell products used for regenerative therapeutic purposes. Silencing HLA expression in transplants generates a condition of immunological invisibility allowing their application in an universal manner independently of the donor and recipient’s major and minor histocompatibility profile and may overcome the need of immunosuppression. HLA-universal cell products may become the “next generation” transplants in regenerative medicine.
Ina Fischer
Dr. Ina Fischer is quality manager and auditor in the Quality Management in Clinical Research staff unit at the MHH. She studied biology at the Leibniz University of Hannover with a focus on cell biology and received her PhD there in cooperation with the Foundation of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. In her doctoral thesis she dealt with transepithelial transport in connection with celiac disease, established methods and was involved in teaching veterinary medicine and biology students. After her PhD Ina Fischer worked at the MHH and continued to be involved in basic research in the SFB 578 "Immune reactions of the lung during infection and allergy".
In 2009 she changed to clinical research and joined the quality assurance/project management team of the MHH Clinical Trial Center. In 2011 she moved internally to the staff unit, where she continues to work in the GCP environment. Her main areas of expertise include advising the MHH inspection bodies, conducting audits, accompanying GCP inspections, in-house production of medical devices, QMB for the QM system of the CRC Core Facility or validation of computer-aided systems.
Angela Geib
Angela Geib began her career in 1987 as a specialist for information and documentation at Institut Mérieux, a manufacturer of vaccines and blood-derived products. After several years at a contract research institute, she moved to Pohl-Boskamp in 1991, a medium-sized but globally active manufacturer of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, where she has been responsible for drug safety / pharmacovigilance since 2013. In addition to many years of experience in drug safety, she also has more than 25 years of experience in the co-ordination and quality assurance of clinical drug trials. She has been a member of the Drug Safety / Pharmacovigilance Committee of the German Pharmaceutical Industry Association (BPI e.V.) since 2013.
Jens Gerdelmann
Dr. Jens Gerdelmann studied biology in Mainz and Leipzig. After graduation, he worked as a postgraduate and post-doc in scientific research at medical and biophysical university institutes in Leipzig and Göttingen for nearly ten years. Afterward Dr. Gerdelmann was active for more than nine years in the areas regulatory affairs and quality management for medical devices, first at MDSS GmbH and afterwards at the spin off MDSS Consulting GmbH in Hannover. He was working as safety officer for medical devices and as consultant for medical devices including IVD. The major focus of his consulting activities was on medical device clinical investigations and clinical evaluation reports for medical device manufacturers.
Since 2019 Dr. Gerdelmann is head of quality assurance of Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (ITEM) in Hannover. ITEM regularly performs studies under Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) as well as Good Clinical Practice (GCP).
Leander Grode
Dr. Leander Grode (1970) joined VPM in May, 2003. As Manager he was responsible for all of VPM´s projects until June, 2008. After being Director of Business Development since 2008 he became CSO and procurator of VPM in April 2013. Since June 2019 Dr. Grode is Managing Director of VPM. He studied biology in Giessen and Frankfurt/Main with focus on cell biology and zoology. As an exchange student, he visited the University of California San Francisco in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the lab of Prof. John Watson. He graduated in 1997 with a degree in biology at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt/Main in the Department of Molecular Membrane Biology under Prof. Hartmut Michel. In the year 2000 he graduated as a PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Infection Biology in the Department of Immunology under Prof. Stefan H.E. Kaufmann. The focus of his thesis was vaccine development against tuberculosis based on live carriers, such as samonella or mycobacterium bovis BCG. Between 2001 and 2003 Leander Grode was the coordinator of the vaccine development group at the MPI in the Department of Immunology.
Thomas Hesterkamp
Thomas Hesterkamp studied Human Biology at Marburg and Heidelberg Universities and obtained his PhD in 1997. His first professional job was at Arpida AG in Switzerland where he was involved in Research and Development of novel antibacterial compounds. From 2000 to 2013 Thomas held various scientific and managerial positions at Evotec AG in Hamburg. Amongst others he participated in major research collaborations with Ono Pharmaceutical, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Bayer, Genentech and later major US universities and research institutions. Since 2013 Thomas is heading the Office for Translational Project Management (TPMO) of the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF).
Simone Heß
Dr. Simone Heß, together with Christiane Bock von Wülfingen, heads the staff unit "Forschungsförderung, Wissens- und Technologietransfer" (FWT) at the MHH, which the two founded in 2018. She studied biochemistry at LUH and received her PhD in Medical Microbiology at MHH. After several years in infection research in Hannover and at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, she switched from research to research management and initially worked as a project manager for EU projects. Since 2009, Dr. Heß has been back at the MHH, where she was initially co-founder of the Department of EU Research Funding. Since 2017, she has helped to establish the national funding advisory service. These two areas are, in addition to training and transfer, tasks of the FWT staff unit.
Ulrich Kalinke
Ulrich Kalinke studied biology in Hannover and received his doctorate at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. There he investigated the role of CD8 as a co-receptor in the specific T cell recognition and aspects of peripheral T cell tolerance. During a postdoctoral and research assistant phase and at the University Hospital of Zurich, he worked in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Rolf Zinkernagel. There he focused on the analysis of virus-neutralizing antibody responses. After that, he did research as a staff scientist and head of the Anti-Viral Defense Group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo near Rome (Italy) for four years. Subsequently, he was appointed as Director and Professor of the Department of Immunology at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute in Langen. There he was responsible for all aspects of the approval of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies and therapeutic vaccines. He also examined the interface between innate and adaptive antiviral immunity as well as regulatory research topics such as challenges and opportunities of monoclonal antibodies and the development of therapeutic tumor vaccines. Currently Prof. Kalinke is Managing Director of the TWINCORE and as Professor of Translational Infection Research at the MHH director of the Institute for Experimental Infection Research. In addition to conducting translational research projects, he contributes to the development of new teaching formats on regulatory issues that are relevant in the conduct of clinical trials. In his own group, he is currently investigating antiviral immunity and viral immune evasion. Another focal point is the analysis of virus control within the central nervous system. The goal is to develop new therapeutic and preventive antiviral strategies. In addition, Prof. Kalinke is site manager of the translational alliance in Lower Saxony (TRAIN).
Stephan Klöss
Dr. Stephan Klöß, PhD, is an immunologist and as a senior scientist responsible for quality control in the GMP Development Unit of the Institute of Cellular Therapeutics at the Hannover Medical School, Germany. He studied biology/biochemistry, received his PhD in 2001 and continued his scientific research work at the cardiovascular physiology and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (Laboratory of Stem Cell Transplantation and Immunotherapy) in the hospital of the Frankfurt University, Germany. Acting in cooperation with Prof. U. Köhl, he moved in July 2012 to the Hannover Medical School for increasing his activities in cell-based therapies among the Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx, Ref.No.01E00802) financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. He is an experienced and competent person in training Ph.D. and M.D. students as well as in teaching hematology/oncology and immunology lectures and doing exams for postgraduate and undergraduate students. Currently he is going to finish his postdoctoral lecture qualification.
Ulrike Köhl
Ulrike Köhl is an immunologist and director of the Institute of Cellular Therapeutics at the MHH. She studied both, biology and medicine, received her PhD in 1995 and continued her scientific work at the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, USA. In 2000 she became the head of the laboratory of stem cell transplantation and immunotherapy in the Paediatric Haematology and Oncology at the University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany. In 2008 she finished her habilitation in medicine and immunology and received lecturer’s qualification. Since May 2012 she started with a full professorship for Cellular Therapeutics in the Integrated Research and Treatment Centre for Transplantation (IFB-Tx), leading the GMP Development Unit (GMPDU) and the Cellular Therapy Centre (CTC), being one of the Qualified Persons in the latter one. All her goals have a clinical focus on the development and manufacturing of cell-based therapies including Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) and the improvement of cell processing strategies. One further, but closely related focus of her work includes flow-cytometric quality control for Somatic Cell Therapy as well as Gene Therapy products, the determination of functional capability and multivariate immune reconstitution models to optimize the time points for cell-based therapies. She is a member of numerous national and international societies and is serving as a reviewer for the European Medicine Agency.
Conrad Kunick
After receiving a doctorate degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Universität Hamburg, Conrad Kunick worked from 1988-1991 as postdoc at the Universität Bonn. He subsequently returned to Hamburg as research fellow, where he focused his scientific interest in the design and synthesis of novel antiproliferative agents. In 2003 he was appointed Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. His current scientific projects are directed toward design, synthesis and structure-activity relationships of protein kinase inhibitors with applications as antiinfective and anticancer agents. The commercially most successful compounds from his lab are the paullones, a class of standard protein kinase inhibitors which are offered for sale by more than 30 commercial vendors.
Mario Leupold
Mario Leupold is Director Startups and Entrepreneurship at hannoverimpuls GmbH. hannoverimpuls is the economic development agency of the City of Hanover and the Hanover Region. Established in 2003, hannoverimpuls has set up a unique portfolio of services and incentives to assist company start-ups and the growth of regional companies and relocation and foreign direct investment of companies from abroad. For company who wants to expand their business activities to the German market, hannoverimpuls offers full support including market consultancy, free office space and incentive programs to support business development. Mario Leupold studied cultural sciences and has 20 years of experience in the field of innovation management and startups.
Peter Lotz
Peter Lotz studied law in Frankfurt/Main and in New York. He holds a Master of Comparative Jurisprudence from New York University School of Law and is admitted to the bar in Germany and in the State of New York. He has counseled multinational as well as medium-sized enterprises for more than 15 years in the areas of life sciences and technology, including 10 years with one of the largest international law firms in their offices in Frankfurt/Main, Chicago and Munich. In particular, he advises technology companies in connection with the cross-border acquisition, licensing, and commercialization of novel technologies, the structuring of international research and development collaborations as well as on regulatory issues in connection with the development of therapeutic and diagnostic products.
Marcel Mertz
Marcel Mertz has studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Basel and gained his PhD in philosophy at the University of Mannheim. Besides working for the Hannover Medical School since 2011, he worked at the University of Basel (Department Medical and Health Ethics), the University of Mannheim (Philosophical Seminar) and the University of Cologne (Research Unit Ethics / Cologne Center for Ethics, Rights, Economics and Social Sciences of Health (ceres)), mainly in interdisciplinary medical and research ethics. His focal research interests are the methodology of medical ethics, esp. empirical ethics, systematic reviews and evaluation methods in health technology assessment. In research ethics, his work focuses on risk-benefit-assessment and uncertainty as well as on the professional ethos in research settings. Furthermore, he has done research in clinical ethics, i.a. on clinical ethics consultation approaches and particularly on ethics guideline development. Also, he researched inter- and transdisciplinarity of medical ethics.
Mertz coordinates currently the working group “Ethik und Empirie (“Ethics and Empiricism”) of the German Akademie für Ethik in der Medizin (“Academy for Ethics in Medicine”).
Christel Müller-Goymann
Christel Müller-Goymann graduated in Pharmacy from TU Braunschweig, received PhD and Habilitation in Pharmaceutical Technology from the same university and was appointed full professor at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology of Philipps-University Marburg in 1989 before accepting a full professorship at TU Braunschweig in 1991, where she remains the head of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology. She is a co-founder and board member of the Center of Pharmaceutical Engineering (Zentrum für Pharmaverfahrens-technik – PVZ), a research center of the TU Braunschweig. She also serves as a chair of an expert group of the European Pharmacopoeia in Strasbourg. Her research focuses on the development and bio-pharmaceutical evaluation of colloidal drug delivery systems mainly for dermal and mucosal administration.
Ingo Ott
Ingo Ott studied Pharmacy at the University of Innsbruck and received a pharmacists license (“Approbation”) in Austria. He obtained the PhD degree (Dr. rer. nat.) at the Institute of Pharmacy at Freie Universität Berlin and performed postdoctoral studies in the same institute as well as in the Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology at East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. In 2009 Ingo Ott was appointed Professor for Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Technische Universität Braunschweig. His research interests are focused on Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry, Bioorganometallic Chemistry and the biomedical properties of transition metal complexes in general. The results are documented in more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, reviews and patents. In 2011 he received the Innovation Award in Medicinal / Pharmaceutical Chemistry by the German Chemical and Pharmaceutical Societies (GDCh and DPhG).
Gerald Parzmair
Dr Gerald Parzmair is Senior Project Manager at VPM. He joined the company in 2016 as a Project Manager, responsible for the coordination in several projects in different stages of pharmaceutical development. In 2017, Dr Parzmair became a Clinical Project Manager at VPM, responsible for the planning, conduct and oversight of clinical trials, with a special focus on the interface between manufacturing and clinics (GMP/GCP). Since 2019 he is Senior Project manager, overseeing projects at VPM.
He received his bachelor’s and master's degree in genetics at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg. For his master's thesis, he worked at the Medical University of Graz in the field of immunopharmacology on the immunomodulatory effects of certain cannabinoids on human granulocytes.
After graduating in 2012, he moved to Braunschweig to work on his PhD thesis at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research on the roles of adaptor proteins in pathogen-specific immune responses and received his PhD at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg in 2016.
Fabio Pisano
Dr. Fabio Pisano is a Senior Project Manager at Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH (VPM), and is responsible for the development of product portfolios and the coordination of projects at different stages of development.
In 2005 he obtained his Master's degree in the field of pharmaceutical Biotechnologies at the University of Bologna (Italy), particularly focusing on neurophysiology and spatial memory.
From 2005 to 2009, he performed his doctoral studies at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig supported by a "Marie Curie" EU scholarship. His dissertation focused on the analysis of infectious diseases in conditional mouse mutants.
Until 2015, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the field of immunology and infectious diseases, with special focus on the virulence strategies of the enteric pathogens Yersinia and Salmonella.
After training as a Project Management Associate he worked as Scientific Officer in the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF).
Carmen Puschmann
Dr. Carmen Puschmann has been working at corlife oHG since 2006. Corlife is a developer and manufacturer of medicinal products (tissue preparations) and medical devices for cardiovascular surgery (www.corlife.eu). After studying biology at the Leibniz University of Hanover, she received a doctor’s degree in the field of cell biology on the topic of “Tissue Engineering of valve bearing venous segments in an allogeneic ovine model”. In 2002, she transferred this project from Leibniz Research Laboratories for Biotechnology and Artificial Organs (www.LEBAO.de) into the biotech company ARTISS GmbH to standardize the procedures as a project manager. Since founding of corlife in 2006 Carmen Puschmann has been active in the field of development and regulatory affairs of medical devices.
Stephan Reichl
Stephan Reichl studied Pharmacy in Braunschweig and received his PhD in 2003 and Habilitation in Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics from the TU Braunschweig in 2013. Since 2020 he is professor for Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. His research focuses on cell based in-vitro models of epithelial and endothelial barriers for drug transport studies, new excipients for the improvement of bioavailability and regenerative medicine of ocular surface.
Axel Schambach
Axel Schambach is Acting Director of the Institute of Experimental Hematology and Professor for Gene modification of somatic cells at MHH (Hannover Medical School). Axel Schambach studied medicine in Hamburg, San Diego (UCSD), San Francisco (UCSF), Dallas, and Zürich. After his Dr. med. he moved to Hannover Medical School to join the Department of Experimental Hematology (Prof. Christopher Baum) and received his PhD in Molecular Medicine in 2005 from the Hannover Biomedical Research School. Since 2007 he is a group leader for hematopoietic gene and cell therapy at the Excellence cluster REBIRTH, a cluster with a strong focus in regenerative medicine. Since 2012 he is Associate Faculty and Visiting Scientist/Lecturer at the Boston Children’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. His main interest is to understand the molecular pathophysiology of inborn and acquired diseases of the blood and immune system and to develop tailor-made gene therapy strategies for selected metabolic diseases and immunodeficiencies. Here, the generation of patient- and disease-specific induced pluripotent cells as an indefinite reservoir becomes increasingly important potentially creating the perspective of genetic correction and cell fate modification of stem and progenitor cells for combined cell and gene therapy in selected applications.
Tobias Schilling
Tobias Schilling, MD, born in 1973, studied medicine in Hanover from 1993 to 2003, obtaining his licence to practise medicine and his doctorate on the subject of "Tissue Engineering of Bioartificial Heart Valves" in 2004. After completing his studies, he worked as a doctor in the Clinic for Cardiac, Thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery at the MHH. As a researcher, Mr Schilling is investigating the development of bioartificial heart muscle, heart valve and aortic replacement. He founded an internet and consulting company in 1998, in which he is still active today. Mr Schilling underpinned the entrepreneurial experience he gained here by completing a postgraduate business degree (MBA) in 2016. Dr Schilling is the author of numerous publications and book contributions and has experience of over 150 scientific presentations and product launches. As the founder of a start-up company, he can look back on countless successful but also unsuccessful negotiations.
Christoph Schindler
Christoph Schindler is a clinical pharmacologist and heading the MHH CRC Core Facility at CRC Hannover. He studied medicine at the universities of Ulm, where he also received his Dr. med., and Toronto/Canada. In 2000 he moved to the Medical Faculty of the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus at the Technical University Dresden and completed his speciality training in clinical pharmacology. In 2008 he finished his habilitation and received lecturer`s qualification. Since 2008 he was a group leader of the working group experimental cardiovascular clinical pharmacology (main interest: therapeutic manipulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system and metabolism) and head of the phase I unit. In 2013 he was appointed as extraordinary Professor at the Medical Faculty of the Technical University Dresden. Since 2014 he is a full professor (W2) for clinical pharmacology – early clinical trials and drug research at Hannover Medical School.
Christian Schneider
Dr. med. Christian K. Schneider is Director of the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), UK, a centre of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Previous positions include Medical Head of Division Medicines Licensing and Availability at the Danish Medicines Agency, and Head of Division EU Co-operation/Microbiology at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute, the German Federal Agency for Vaccines and Biomedicines. Previous Roles at the European Medicines Agency include Chair of the Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT; 2009-2013), Chair of the Biosimilar Medicinal Products Working Party (BMWP; 2007-2016), and co-opted member of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use for the area "Quality and safety (biological), with expertise in Advanced Therapies - Gene, Cell and Tissue Therapies" (CHMP; 2007-2011).
Matthias Schönermark
Professor Matthias P. Schönermark has been lecturing at the Hanover Medical School as a Professor of Management and teaching as a guest lecturer at various international universities and business schools since 2001.
The qualified Head and Neck Surgeon began his career in the field of strategy consulting at the Boston Consulting Group and as Associate Director at A.T. Kearney. In 2005 he founded the management consulting firm SKC together with Heike Kielhorn-Schönermark.
A key focus of his activities is the question of leadership as a strategic resource. Professsor Schönermark served on the board of directors at the NeuroLeadership Institute.
Susanne Thiele
Susanne Thiele studied biology at the Technical University of Braunschweig with the main focus on microbiology, biochemistry and botany. Her first professional station was at the Leibniz Institute for Plant Genetics and Cultivated Plant Breeding in Gatersleben. In 1999 she changed to the private sector and joined BIOBASE GmbH in Wolfenbüttel/Boston, an international developer and provider of scientific databases for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, today part of QIAGEN. As Sales & Marketing Manager she was responsible for the support of international companies and took over corporate communications in 2006. Since 2007, Susanne Thiele has focused on science communication. She deals with the targeted communication of scientific topics to the general public at various research institutions and among other things has further qualified herself at the “Freie Journalisten Schule Berlin”. In 2007, she was spokeswoman for the anniversary year “Braunschweig – City of Science 2007”, hosted by the “Stifterverband für die Wissenschaft”. From 2012 to 2015, Susanne Thiele headed the press office at the Leibniz-Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures in Braunschweig. Since the end of 2015, she has been Head of the Press and Communication Unit at the Helmholtz-Center for Infection Research (HZI). Susanne Thiele is responsible for the external and internal communication for the main campus in Braunschweig and the HZI locations in Hannover, Hamburg, Saarbrücken and Würzburg.
Henning Voigt
Since July 2008 Dr. Henning Voigt is research coordinator with focus on organizing (interdisciplinary) research activities of the Department of Otolaryngology at the MHH. He studied biology in Hannover and did his diploma thesis at the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo). After his doctoral thesis (Institute of Zoology, TiHo) he worked as contract researcher and gained experiences in the field of studies for pharmaceutical and biomedical industry under GLP conditions. Dr. Voigt is animal welfare officer of the Institute of AudioNeuroTechnology VIANNA (www.vianna.de) and contributed to the introduction of a quality management system according to ISO 9001 in the research field of CrossBIT (www.crossbit.eu). Moreover, as quality management representative he supports the introduction of a quality management system according to ISO 9001 at the Department of Otolaryngology which is planned for 2015.
Hermann Wätzig
Prof. Dr. Hermann Wätzig studied pharmacy at the Freie Universität Berlin from 1981 to 1985. PhD thesis 1989 about an HPLC topic, supervised by Prof. Dr. S. Ebel. From 1990 lecturer at the Institut für Pharmazie in Würzburg. Habilitation 1995. In 1999 appointment to a professorship in pharmaceutical chemistry at the Technical University of Braunschweig. Since 2001 chair of the division pharmaceutical analysis/quality control of the German Pharmaceutical Society. Editorial Board Member of the journal Electrophoresis. Scientific committee member of ISEAC. Main research interests: instrumental analysis, especially capillary and gel electrophoresis, chromatographic techniques and mass spectroscopy. Analysis from body fluids. Analysis of biopolymers. Proteome research. Quality control. Quality assurance. Drugs from biotechnical production. Ligand binding assays, Metallomics, Validation. Statistics. Surface analysis. High resolution microscopy (REM, AFM, etc.).
Henning Weigt
Dr. Weigt is biologist by training and majored in immunology and genetics. He moved to the pharmaceutically regulated field in 2000 while pursuing his dissertation on the production and quality control of cell therapy products according to GMP which were subsequently clinically tested. In continuation of this, he led a group focusing on the optimization of such products. In 2004, Dr. Weigt joined LipoNova AG. Initially, he developed and validated manufacturing processes and analytical methods for cancer immunotherapies and built the Quality part of the regulatory documentation in the course of a European marketing authorization application. In 2005, he was appointed head of quality control according to German drug law. From 2007 until 2015 Dr. Weigt was Project Manager for translational development of pharmaceuticals and later as Head of Quality Assurance with Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH. He was appointed Chief Operations Officer in 2013. In this function, he organizes and takes the responsibility for the company's daily operations. In October 2015 he returned to Fraunhofer ITEM, focusing on regulatory aspects in pharmaceutical development.
Heiner Will
Heiner Will began his professional career with an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at Schülke & Mayr GmbH in Norderstedt. Building on this commercial background, various assistant positions followed in the areas of marketing, sales and new business at Schülke & Mayr during his professional development. In 1984 Heiner Will moved to medac Gesellschaft für klinische Spezialpräparate mbH, then in Hamburg, as assistant to the managing partner. In addition to tasks in the business fields of oncology and application technology, he was entrusted with the development of the business unit of inflammatory diseases in 1995.
Since 2005, Heiner Will has been one of the managing directors of medac Gesellschaft für klinische Spezialpräparate mbH in Wedel and is today responsible for the product/portfolio development of all therapy areas as well as global marketing. In 2007, Heiner Will was a board member of the Voluntary Self-Regulation for the Pharmaceutical Industry e.V. (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle für die Arzneimittelindustrie e.V. - FSA) and has been the chairman of the BPI North Regional Association since 2014. He has been a member of the Federal Board of the BPI since June 2014. In an honorary capacity, Heiner Will is, among other things, a member of the board of the Alfred Marchionini Foundation, which promotes scientific medical work, preferably in dermatology, and a member of the board of trustees of the Hans Knöll Institute of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology e.V., which awards a research prize donated by medac every year - divided among several young scientists.