Ijad Madisch (born 7 October 1980 in

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's hea ...

, Germany) is a German

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, their ...

, founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the research network

ResearchGate ResearchGate is a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a 2014 study by ''Nature'' and a 2016 article in ''Times Higher Education'' ...

and member of the Digital Council (''Digitalrat'') of the

Cabinet of Germany The Federal Cabinet or Federal Government (german: link=no, Bundeskabinett or ') is the chief Executive (government), executive body of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Chancellor of Germany, Federal Chancellor and m ...

(''Bundesregierung'').

Personal life

Ijad Madisch was born in Wolfsburg to a

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

n family who immigrated to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. His elder brother is Ahmed Madisch, a professor and chief physician at Siloah hospital in

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

. In 2000, Ijad got his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

from Gymnasium in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

. Ijad Madisch plays Beachvolleyball semi-professionally. His current teammate is the former German national player

Finn Dittelbach The word Finn (''pl.'' Finns) usually refers to a member of the majority Balto-Finnic ethnic group of Finland, or to a person from Finland. Finn may also refer to: Places * Finn Lake, Minnesota, United States * Finn Township, Logan County, Nort ...

Career

From 2000 to 2007, Ijad Madisch studied medicine at the

Hannover Medical School The Hannover Medical SchoolAlthough the English spelling of the city name is "Hanover", this form of the name, using the German spelling of the city name, is used as the English-language name of the school, for example . (german: Medizinische Ho ...

(MHH) and worked in the US at the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. From 2002 to 2008, he studied

computer sciences Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (including ...

at the

University of Hagen The University of Hagen (german: link=no, FernUniversität in Hagen, informally often referred to as FU Hagen) is a public research university that is primarily focused on distance teaching. While its main campus is located in Hagen, North Rh ...

, but didn't complete this degree. In 2007, Madisch received his doctorate from the MHH in the field of virology with ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' for his work entitled "''Molecular

Phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

and

Bioinformatic Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combine ...

Analysis as the basis for the typing of human

adenoviruses Adenoviruses (members of the family ''Adenoviridae'') are medium-sized (90–100 nm), nonenveloped (without an outer lipid bilayer) viruses with an icosahedral nucleocapsid containing a double-stranded DNA genome. Their name derives from thei ...

and for the design of organ-specific

gene therapy Gene therapy is a medical field which focuses on the genetic modification of cells to produce a therapeutic effect or the treatment of disease by repairing or reconstructing defective genetic material. The first attempt at modifying human DN ...

adenoviral vectors''". He received the doctoral prize from MHH for this thesis. From 2008 to 2010, he went back to

as a postdoctoral researcher. During this time, Madisch won the Young Investigator Prize of the

Radiological Society of North America The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) is a non-profit organization and an international society of radiologists, medical physicists and other medical imaging professionals representing 31 radiologic subspecialties from 145 countries a ...

(RSNA) in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

for the project "High-resolution volume CT imaging of tissue-engineered bone growth: correlation between imaging, bio-mechanical strength, and protein transcription analysis". The decisive factor for his move to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

was the desire to found

, the social network which is specifically created for scientists to exchange their research projects and results. Since 2010, he is the head of the digital platform as chief executive officer (CEO) and has raised 87.6M $ from

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

Benchmark (venture capital firm) Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups. History The firm's most successful investment was a 1997 investment of $6.7 million in eBay for 22.1% of the company. In 2011, it invested $12 mill ...

Founders Fund Founders Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. Formed in 2005, Founders Fund had more than $11 billion in aggregate capital under management as of 2022. The firm invests across all stages and sectors, including aerospace, artificia ...

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

Ashton Kutcher Christopher Ashton Kutcher (; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a People's Choice Award, and nominations for two Young Artist Awards, a S ...

and others.

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

named Ijad Madisch a Next Generation Leader. He also is a member of the selection committee for the

Breakthrough Prize The Breakthrough Prizes are a set of international awards bestowed in three categories by the Breakthrough Prize Board in recognition of scientific advances. The awards are part of several "Breakthrough" initiatives founded and funded by Yuri Mi ...

Junior Challenge founded by

Sergey Brin Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (russian: link=no, Сергей Михайлович Брин; born August 21, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist, and internet entrepreneur, who co-founded Google with Larry Page. Brin was the ...

Priscilla Chan Priscilla Chan (born February 24, 1985) is an American philanthropist and a former pediatrician. She and her husband, Mark Zuckerberg, a co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, established the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in December 2015, with a p ...

and

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...

Yuri Milner Yuri Borisovich (Bentsionovich) Milner (russian: Юрий Борисович (Бенционович) Мильнер; born 11 November 1961) is a Soviet-born Israeli entrepreneur, venture capitalist and physicist. He is a cofounder and former c ...

and Julia Milner, and

Anne Wojcicki Anne E. Wojcicki ( ; born July 28, 1973) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded and serves as CEO of the personal genomics company 23andMe. She founded the company in 2006 with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza to provide the general public access t ...

. After a telephone request from the German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

, Ijad Madisch became on 22 August 2018 a member of the 10-member Digital Council of the

Publications

* Ijad Madisch, Gabi Harste, Heidi Pommer, Albert Heim: Phylogenetic analysis of the main neutralization and hemagglutination determinants of all human adenovirus prototypes as a basis for molecular classification and taxonomy. (J Virol. 2005 Dezember;79(24):15265-76.)
online
* Ijad Madisch, Roman Wölfel, Gabi Harste, Heidi Pommer, Albert Heim: Molecular identification of adenovirus sequences: A rapid scheme for early typing of human adenoviruses in diagnostic samples of immunocompetent and immunodeficient patients (J Med Virol. 2006 Sep;78(9):1210-7. doi: 10.1002/jmv.20683
online
* Ijad Madisch, Soeren Hofmayer, Christian Moritz, Alexander Grintzalis, Jens Hainmueller, Patricia Pring-Akerblom, Albert Heim: Phylogenetic analysis and structural predictions of human adenovirus penton proteins as a basis for tissue-specific adenovirus vector design (J Virol 2007 Aug;81(15):8270-81. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00048-07. Epub 2007 May 23
online
* Soeren Hofmayer, Ijad Madisch, Sebastian Darr, Fabienne Rehren, Albert Heim: Unique sequence features of the Human Adenovirus 31 complete genomic sequence are conserved in clinical isolates (BMC genomics, Vol. 10, 25. November 2009, Nr. 1, date:12.2009: 1–14), SpringerLink, 2009
online
*Christian Weinand, Irina Pomerantseva, Craig M Neville, Rajiv Gupta, Eli Weinberg, Ijad Madisch, Frederic Shapiro, Harutsugi Abukawa, Maria J Troulis, Joseph P Vacanti: Hydrogel-beta-TCP scaffolds and stem cells for tissue engineering bone (Bone. 2006 Apr;38(4):555-63. doi: 10.1016/j.bone.2005.10.016. Epub 2005 Dec 20.)

References

External links

Ijad Madisch on ResearchGate

Ijad Madisch on Twitter

Ijad Madisch on Instagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madisch, Ijad 1980 births Living people People from Wolfsburg German people of Syrian descent University of Hanover alumni German virologists 21st-century German businesspeople German emigrants to the United States