Lutz Gissmann

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Lutz Gissmann (born September 18, 1949 in Kaufbeuren ) is a German virologist and until his retirement was head of the genome changes and carcinogenesis department at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg.

Life

Gissmann received a diploma in biology and a doctorate from the University of Erlangen . With Harald zur Hausen, he went to the University of Freiburg as a postdoc and later became an assistant professor for virology . In 1983 he was appointed head of the genome changes and carcinogenesis department at the German Cancer Research Center and professor at Heidelberg University. From 1993 to 1997 he was Scientific Director at the Institute for Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the Viral Oncology program at Loyola University Medical Center, Chicago, USA. From 1998 and 1999 he held the post of Vice President Research and Development at Medigene AG, Martinsried, Germany, before returning to the DKFZ. Lutz Gissmann was a member of the board of trustees of the DKFZ from 2002 to 2012 and spokesman for the research programs applied tumor virology and infections and cancer . In addition, he assumed the function of ombudsman for doctoral students at the DKFZ (2004–2010).

Lutz Gissman has published around 200 scientific papers in international journals, registered several patents and contributed to specialist books. He has received scientific honors, including the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (2007), which he and Harald zur Hausen were awarded for “ work that led to the development of the HPV vaccine ”.

Act

Lutz Gissmann has carried out fundamental scientific work in the field of human papillioma viruses (HPV) and has focused in his research on the causal relationship between an HPV infection and the development of cervical cancer . His early scientific work clarified the genetic heterogeneity between different HPV isolates and led to the concept of defined HPV types, some of which are directly related to specific benign or malignant cancers . In the early 1980s, he isolated and characterized HPV16 and HPV18 in the laboratory of the later Nobel Prize winner Harald zur Hausen , together with his colleagues Matthias Dürst and Michael Boshart. These two types of HPV have the greatest oncogenic potential for cervical cancer and are responsible for the majority of HPV-induced neck and neck and anogential tumors.

The work carried out and guided by him formed the basis for the development of prophylactic HPV vaccines to prevent HPV-induced cancers. Even today (2016) Lutz Gissmann is still involved in work on the development of the next generation of vaccines.

credentials

  1. ↑ Gissmann, H Zur Hausen: Human papilloma virus DNA: Physical mapping and genetic heterogeneity . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 73, No. 4, 1976, pp. 1310-3. doi : 10.1073 / pnas.73.4.1310 . PMID 177985 . PMC 430256 (free full text).
  2. ↑ Gissmann, H Pfister, H Zur Hausen: Human papilloma viruses (HPV): Characterization of four different isolates . In: Virology . 76, No. 2, 1977, pp. 569-80. doi : 10.1016 / 0042-6822 (77) 90239-2 . PMID 65825 .
  3. ↑ Dürst, L Gissmann, H Ikenberg, H Zur Hausen: A papillomavirus DNA from a cervical carcinoma and its prevalence in cancer biopsy samples from different geographic regions . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 80, No. 12, 1983, pp. 3812-5. doi : 10.1073 / pnas.80.12.3812 . PMID 6304740 . PMC 394142 (free full text).
  4. ↑ Boshart, L Gissmann, H Ikenberg, A Kleinheinz, W Scheurlen, H Zur Hausen: A new type of papillomavirus DNA, its presence in genital cancer biopsies and in cell lines derived from cervical cancer . In: The EMBO Journal . 3, No. 5, 1984, pp. 1151-7. PMID 6329740 . PMC 557488 (free full text).
personal data
SURNAME Gissmann, Lutz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German virologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaufbeuren