Hans-Georg Rammensee (born 12 April 1953) is a German
immunologist and
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
researcher. He has been Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Immunology at the
University of Tübingen
The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wà ...
since 1996.
Rammensee has contributed essentially to the research fields of
MHC biology and
tumor immunology
Cancer immunology is an interdisciplinary branch of biology that is concerned with understanding the role of the immune system in the progression and development of cancer; the most well known application is cancer immunotherapy, which utilises ...
and to the development of
cancer immunotherapies.
Life
Rammensee studied
Biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
at the University of Tübingen and worked as a PhD student at the
Max Planck Institute for Biology
The Max Planck Institute for Biology is located in Tübingen, Germany, and has been re-established in January 2022.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the predecessor organization of the Max Planck Society, established various natural science research ...
in Tübingen. After gaining his doctorate in 1982 he initially worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at
Scripps Research Institute
Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institu ...
,
La Jolla
La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781.
La Jolla is surrounded on ...
, USA. In 1985 he moved as a scientific member to the
Basel Institute for Immunology
The Basel Institute for Immunology (BII) was founded in 1969 as a basic research institute in immunology located at 487 Grenzacherstrasse, Basel, Switzerland on the Rhine River down the street from the main Hoffmann-La Roche campus near the Swiss-G ...
,
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, Switzerland. Two years later Rammensee returned to Max Planck Institute for Biology as a group leader at the department of
immunogenetics
Immunogenetics or immungenetics is the branch of Medical Immunology and Medical Genetics that explores the relationship between the immune system and genetics.
Autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes, are complex genetic traits which result ...
. 1993 he became head of department at the Tumor-Virus-Immunology Section of the
German Cancer Research Center
The German Cancer Research Center (known as the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum or simply DKFZ in German) is a national cancer research center based in Heidelberg, Germany. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres ...
,
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, Germany. The same year he was appointed professor at the Faculty of Theoretical Medicine of
Heidelberg University
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...
. He has been a Full Professor at the University of Tübingen and Chair of the Department of Immunology at the Institute for Cell Biology since 1996.
Research
Since the late 1970s, Rammensee has been focusing on immunology with the specific aim of using tumor immunology to fight against cancer. He has contributed to
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
and immune regulation as well as to the understanding of minor
H antigen
H antigen can refer to one of various types of antigens having diverse biological functions. H antigen is located on the 19th chromosome in humans, and has a variety of functions and definitions as follows:
* Also known as substance H, H antigen ...
s,
T cells
A T cell is a type of lymphocyte. T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell re ...
and the
major histocompatibility complex (MHC). His group has systematically developed
bioinformatics tools for this purpose. In recent years, Rammensee has combined basic research on MHC biology with translational research, thus bringing tumor immunology into clinical practice. Currently he is focusing on the development of
individualized cancer immunotherapy.
In 2000 and 2010, Rammensee co-founded three research-based companies. Immatics is involved in the development of cancer immunotherapies,
CureVac
CureVac N.V. is a German biopharmaceutical company that develops therapies based on messenger RNA (mRNA). Legally domiciled in the Netherlands and headquartered in Tübingen, Germany, the company was founded in 2000 by Ingmar Hoerr (CEO), S ...
develops therapies based on
messenger RNA (mRNA); synimmune on
recombinant antibodies Recombinant antibodies are antibody fragments produced by using recombinant antibody coding genes. They mostly consist of a heavy and light chain of the variable region of immunoglobulin. Recombinant antibodies have many advantages in both medic ...
.
Awards
*
Ernst Jung Prize
The Ernst Jung Prize is a prize awarded annually for excellence in biomedical sciences. The Ernst Jung Foundation, funded by Hamburg merchant Ernst Jung in 1967, has awarded the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, now €300,000, since 1976, and the lif ...
for Medicine, 2016
*German Cancer Aid Award, 2013
*Hansen Family Award, 2013
*Advanced Grant of the
European Research Council, 2013
*
Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is an annual award bestowed by the since 1952 for investigations in medicine. It carries a prize money of 120,000 Euro. The prize awarding ceremony is traditionally held on March 14, the birthday of N ...
, 1996
*
Robert Koch Prize
The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the ...
, 1993
*
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, 1992
*
Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize, 1988
Publications
*Schuster H, Peper JK, Bösmüller HC, Röhle K, Backert L, Bilich T, Ney B, Löffler MW, Kowalewski DJ, Trautwein N, Rabsteyn A, Engler T, Braun S, Haen SP, Walz JS, Schmid-Horch B, Brucker SY, Wallwiener D, Kohlbacher O, Fend F, Rammensee HG, Stevanović S, Staebler A, Wagner P. The immunopeptidomic landscape of ovarian carcinomas. ''Proc Natl Acad Sci'' U S A. 2017 Nov 14;114(46):E9942-E9951. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1707658114.
*Kowalewski DJ, Schuster H, Backert L, Berlin C, Kahn S, Kanz L, Salih HR, Rammensee HG, Stevanovic S, Stickel JS. HLA ligandome analysis identifies the underlying specificities of spontaneous antileukemia immune responses in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). ''Proc Natl Acad Sci'' U S A. 2015 Jan 13;112(2):E166-75. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1416389112. Epub 2014 Dec 29. Erratum in: ''Proc Natl Acad Sci'' U S A. 2015 Nov 10;112(45):E6258-60. ''Proc Natl Acad Sci'' U S A. 2015 Nov 10;112(45):E6254-6
*Gubin MM, Zhang X, Schuster H, Caron E, Ward JP, Noguchi T, Ivanova Y, Hundal J, Arthur CD, Krebber WJ, Mulder GE, Toebes M, Vesely MD, Lam SS, Korman AJ, Allison JP, Freeman GJ, Sharpe AH, Pearce EL, Schumacher TN, Aebersold R, Rammensee HG,
Melief CJ, Mardis ER, Gillanders WE, Artyomov MN, Schreiber RD. Checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapy targets tumour-specific mutant antigens. ''Nature''. 2014 Nov 27;515(7528):577-81. doi: 10.1038/nature13988
*Britten CM, Singh-Jasuja H, Flamion B, Hoos A, Huber C, Kallen KJ, Khleif SN, Kreiter S, Nielsen M, Rammensee HG, Sahin U, Hinz T, Kalinke U. The regulatory landscape for actively personalized cancer immunotherapies. ''Nat Biotechnol''. 2013 Oct;31(10):880-2. doi: 10.1038/nbt.2708
*Weinschenk T, Gouttefangeas C, Schirle M, Obermayr F, Walter S, Schoor O, Kurek R, Loeser W, Bichler KH, Wernet D, Stevanović S, Rammensee HG. Integrated functional genomics approach for the design of patient-individual antitumor vaccines. Cancer Res. 2002 Oct 15;62(20):5818-27
*Hoerr I, Obst R, Rammensee HG, Jung G. In vivo application of RNA leads to induction of specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes and antibodies. ''Eur J Immunol''. 2000 Jan;30(1):1–7
*Rammensee H, Bachmann J, Emmerich NP, Bachor OA, Stevanović S. SYFPEITHI: database for MHC ligands and peptide motifs. ''Immunogenetics''. 1999 Nov;50(3-4):213-9. Review
*Falk K, Rötzschke O, Stevanović S, Jung G, Rammensee HG. Allele-specific motifs revealed by sequencing of self-peptides eluted from MHC molecules. ''Nature''. 1991 May 23;351(6324):290-6.
*Rötzschke O, Falk K, Deres K, Schild H, Norda M, Metzger J, Jung G, Rammensee HG. Isolation and analysis of naturally processed viral peptides as recognized by cytotoxic T cells. ''Nature''. 1990 Nov 15;348(6298):252-4
*Deres K, Schild H, Wiesmüller KH, Jung G, Rammensee HG. In vivo priming of virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes with synthetic lipopeptide vaccine. ''Nature''. 1989 Nov 30;342(6249):561-4
See also
*
Cancer immunotherapy
Cancer immunotherapy (sometimes called immuno-oncology) is the stimulation of the immune system to treat cancer, improving on the immune system's natural ability to fight the disease. It is an application of the fundamental research of cancer ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rammensee, Hans Georg
German immunologists
Living people
1953 births
University of Tübingen faculty