Gunther Hartmann (born 7 December 1966 in Leutkirch) is a German immunologist and clinical pharmacologist. Since 2007 he has been the Director of the Institute of

Clinical Chemistry Clinical chemistry (also known as chemical pathology, clinical biochemistry or medical biochemistry) is the area of chemistry that is generally concerned with analysis of bodily fluids for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. It is an applied ...

and

Clinical Pharmacology Clinical pharmacology has been defined as "that discipline that teaches, does research, frames policy, gives information and advice about the actions and proper uses of medicines in humans and implements that knowledge in clinical practice". Clinic ...

at the

University Hospital A university hospital is an institution which combines the services of a hospital with the education of medical students and with medical research. These hospitals are typically affiliated with a medical school or university. The following is a l ...

of the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

Career

In 1986, Hartmann graduated from Salvator College Catholic High School in Bad Wurzach and then began his medical studies at the Medical School of the University of Ulm. He earned his medical degree there in 1994 from the Department of Clinical Genetics and then became a clinical fellow at the Medizinische Klinik Innenstadt of the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. In 1998, he joined the lab of Arthur Krieg at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

as a postdoctoral researcher. Then in 2001, he completed his ''

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

'' degree in Clinical Pharmacology at LMU Munich. Hartmann's group has long been interested in understanding how the

innate immune system The innate, or nonspecific, immune system is one of the two main immunity strategies (the other being the adaptive immune system) in vertebrates. The innate immune system is an older evolutionary defense strategy, relatively speaking, and is the ...

recognizes foreign nucleic acids, to protect against threats from viruses and pathogens. This work began when he was a postdoc in Munich. In the Krieg lab in Iowa, he characterized the CpG motif in DNA that is detected by human Toll-like receptor 9 (

TLR9 Toll-like receptor 9 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''TLR9'' gene. TLR9 has also been designated as CD289 (cluster of differentiation 289). It is a member of the toll-like receptor (TLR) family. TLR9 is an important receptor expresse ...

) and then back in Munich he studied the immunobiological consequences of TLR9 activation. First in Munich and then in Bonn, his group went on to study RNA recognition by

TLR7 Toll-like receptor 7, also known as TLR7, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''TLR7'' gene. Orthologs are found in mammals and birds. It is a member of the toll-like receptor (TLR) family and detects single stranded RNA. Function T ...

, specifically the TLR7-mediated detection of short interfering RNAs ( siRNA). Along these lines, the Hartmann group has studied RIG-I as a sensor for cytosolic RNA, and identified blunt-ended double-stranded RNA with a 5´-triphosphate as the RIG-I ligand. In addition, the group has also studied the recognition of cytosolic double-stranded DNA by the cGAS/STING pathway. In 2005, Hartmann was made head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the

University Hospital Bonn The University Hospital Bonn is a maximum care hospital with more than 1306 planned beds. Our more than 8,500 employees perform tasks in research, teaching and patient care as well as in public health at the highest level. History At the same ...

(UKB), and in 2007, he was appointed Professor and Director of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology including the Central Laboratory at the UKB. Since 2009, he has been a member of the expert committee on Cancer Therapy Trials at the German Cancer Aid organization. He is the founding and current spokesperson for the ImmunoSensation Cluster of Excellence, funded by the '' Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft'' (DFG) starting in November 2012 and renewed in 2019. He has served as president of the international Oligonucleotide Therapeutic Society (2011–12). In 2012, Hartmann was awarded the

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (german: link=no, Förderpreis für deutsche Wissenschaftler im Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Programm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft), in short Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to ...

by the DFG in recognition of his work on the detection of nucleic acids by the immune system. In 2016, he was appointed Vice Dean of Research for the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn. Beginning in 2018, he is serving as the spokesperson for the

Collaborative Research Center The Collaborative Research Center is a building on the Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and ...

/Transregio grant “Nucleic Acid Immunity”, funded by the DFG. In addition, Hartmann was one of the founders of a spin-off company (Rigontec GmbH) developing 5'-triphosphate RNAs to target RIG-I, which was acquired by Merck & Co. in 2017.

Honors

* 2000: "Young Master" of the German Society of Hematology and Oncology * 2000:

Paul Martini Prize Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

* 2004: Georg Heberer Award of the Chiles Foundation in Portland * 2004: Ludwig Heilmeyer Award * 2004: Biofuture Award of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research * 2007:

Wilhelm Vaillant Prize Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Mount ...

for Medical Research * 2009: GoBio Prize of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research * 2011: Dr. Friedrich Sasse Medal in gold of the Berlin Medical Society * 2012:

* 2013: Member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

References

External links

Gunther Hartmann's CV (PDF)

List of publications
(PDF; 142 kB)
Homepage of the Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Bonn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartmann, Gunther 1966 births Living people People from Leutkirch im Allgäu German pharmacologists Clinical pharmacologists Academic staff of the University of Bonn Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners 20th-century German physicians 21st-century German physicians