Immunology Seminar Series: Heinz Wiendl

Immunology Seminar Series

April 2nd online at 14 – 15 (Finland time)

Heinz Wiendl, Department of Neurology with Institute of Translational Neurology at Muenster University, Germany: Compartment-specific phenotyping in neuroimmunological diseases

Host: Riitta Lahesmaa ( rilahes@utu.fi )

Immunology seminar series is jointly organised by the Finnish Society for Immunology, InFLAMES Flagship and Turku Bioscience. For further information contact Anne Lahdenperä ( ankahy@utu.fi ) or Riitta Lahesmaa ( rilahes@utu.fi ), University of Turku.

***

Heinz Wiendl studied medicine in Germany, Switzerland, and the USA, graduating in 1996. After working as a research fellow at the Institute of Neuroanatomy, Nuremberg, and the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology and the Department of Neurology, Tuebingen, he became head of the clinical research group for multiple sclerosis (MS) in Wuerzburg in 2005 and acted as a vice-chair of the Department of Neurology. In 2010, he was recruited to the University Hospital Muenster as director of the Department of Neurology – Inflammatory Disorders of the Nervous System and Neurooncology. Since 2013, Prof. Wiendl serves as head of the Department of Neurology, Muenster – to which the Institute of Translational Neurology has been associated since 2018. His research focuses on inflammatory neurodegeneration and immune regulation and protection as well as monitoring MS and its therapy. His achievements have been recognized by both Sobek awards of the German Society for MS (DMSG) (2004; 2015). In 2017, he was appointed Honorary Professor at Sydney Medical School and in 2020 he received an honorary doctorate from the Medical Faculty of Masshad/Iran.

Heinz Wiendl is a member of numerous scientific and academic advisory boards and expert panels, including editorial boards of international scientific journals in the fields of neurology, neurosciences, and immunology, as well as for societies, foundations, and project promoters. Currently, he is the speaker of the Collaborative Research Center 128 “Multiple Sclerosis”, and speaker of the disease-related competence network Multiple Sclerosis (KKNMS). He is the founder and principal investigator of the “Body and Brain Institute” Muenster, a prestigious research building funded by the German Federal Ministry.

Selected publications:

1) Schneider-Hohendorf T*, Gerdes LA*, Pignolet B*, Gittelman R, Ostkamp P, Rubelt F, Raposo C, Tackenberg B, Riepenhausen M, Janoschka C, Wünsch C, Bucciarelli F, Flierl-Hecht A, Beltrán E, Kümpfel T, Anslinger K, Gross CC, Chapman H, Kaplan I, Brassat D, Wekerle H, Kerschensteiner M, Klotz L, Lünemann JD, Hohlfeld R, Liblau R*, Wiendl H*, Schwab N*. (2022) Broader Epstein-Barr virus-specific T cell receptor repertoire in patients with multiple sclerosis. J Exp Med 219(11):e20220650. (*= equal contribution)

2) Ostkamp P, Deffner M, Schulte-Mecklenbeck A, Wünsch C, Lu IN, Wu GF, Goelz S, De Jager PL, Kuhlmann T, Gross CC, Klotz L, Meyer Zu Hörste G, Wiendl H*, Schneider-Hohendorf T*, Schwab N*. (2022) A single-cell analysis framework allows for characterization of CSF leukocytes and their tissue of origin in multiple sclerosis. Sci Transl Med. 14(673):eadc9778. (*= equal contribution)

3) Schulte-Mecklenbeck A*, Steinberg OV*, Wirth T*, Lauks S*, Bittner S*, Schindler P, Baranzini SE, Groppa S, Bellmann-Strobl J, Bünger N, Chien C, Dawin E, Eveslage M, Fleischer V, Gonzalez-Escamilla G, Gisevius B, Haas J, Kerschensteiner M, Kirstein L, Korsukewitz C, Lohmann L, Lünemann JD, Luessi F, Meyer zu Hörste G, Motte J, Ruck T, Ruprecht K, Schwab N, Steffen F, Meuth SG, Paul F, Wildemann B, Kümpfel T, Gold R, Hahn T, Zipp F, Klotz L*, Wiendl H*, KKNMS (2024) Multiple sclerosis endophenotypes identified by high-dimensional blood signatures are associated with distinct disease trajectories. Sci Transl Med. In Press. (* shared first/last authorship)