Stephan Günther

Stephan Günther (* 1963 ) is a German virologist , known for research on the SARS virus.

Günther studied medicine at the Humboldt University Berlin ( Charité ), where he received his doctorate in virology. He wrote his dissertation from 1993 on the occurrence of hepatitis B virus mutants in the course of interferon-alpha-induced seroconversion from HBeAg to anti-HBe . He then worked at the Heinrich Pette Institute for Experimental Virology and Immunology in Hamburg and from 1998 at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, where he has headed the Virology Department since 2006. In 2003 he completed his habilitation in medicine at the University Medical Center Eppendorf.

In 2003 he and Christian Drosten at the Bernhard Nocht Institute identified the SARS pathogen (as a new type of coronavirus) and both developed a rapid diagnostic test that is now used worldwide. With his working group, he is also developing diagnostic methods for the causative agents of Lassa fever , the Ebola virus and the Marburg virus .

Günther and Drosten received the Werner Otto Foundation Prize in 2003 and the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon in 2005 for their work on the SARS virus.

Web links

• His working group at the Bernhard Nocht Institute
• Portrait at labor and more