Gunther Hartmann (born 7 December 1966 in Leutkirch) is a German immunologist and clinical pharmacologist. Since 2007 he has been the Director of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital of the University of Bonn.

Gunther Hartmann, November 2009

Career

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In 1986, Hartmann graduated from Salvator College Catholic High School in Bad Wurzach and then began his medical studies at the Medical School of the University of Ulm. He earned his medical degree there in 1994 from the Department of Clinical Genetics and then became a clinical fellow at the Medizinische Klinik Innenstadt of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 1998, he joined the lab of Arthur Krieg at the University of Iowa as a postdoctoral researcher. Then in 2001, he completed his habilitation degree in Clinical Pharmacology at LMU Munich.

Hartmann's group has long been interested in understanding how the innate immune system recognizes foreign nucleic acids, to protect against threats from viruses and pathogens. This work began when he was a postdoc in Munich.[1][2] In the Krieg lab in Iowa, he characterized the CpG motif in DNA that is detected by human Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) and then back in Munich he studied the immunobiological consequences of TLR9 activation.[3][4][5][6] First in Munich and then in Bonn, his group went on to study RNA recognition by TLR7, specifically the TLR7-mediated detection of short interfering RNAs (siRNA).[7] Along these lines, the Hartmann group has studied RIG-I as a sensor for cytosolic RNA, and identified blunt-ended double-stranded RNA with a 5´-triphosphate as the RIG-I ligand.[8][9][10] In addition, the group has also studied the recognition of cytosolic double-stranded DNA by the cGAS/STING pathway.[11][12]

In 2005, Hartmann was made head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), and in 2007, he was appointed Professor and Director of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology including the Central Laboratory at the UKB. Since 2009, he has been a member of the expert committee on Cancer Therapy Trials at the German Cancer Aid organization.[13] He is the founding and current spokesperson for the ImmunoSensation Cluster of Excellence,[14] funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) starting in November 2012 and renewed in 2019. He has served as president of the international Oligonucleotide Therapeutic Society (2011–12).[15] In 2012, Hartmann was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize by the DFG in recognition of his work on the detection of nucleic acids by the immune system.[16] In 2016, he was appointed Vice Dean of Research for the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn. Beginning in 2018, he is serving as the spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio grant “Nucleic Acid Immunity”, funded by the DFG.[17] In addition, Hartmann was one of the founders of a spin-off company (Rigontec GmbH) developing 5'-triphosphate RNAs to target RIG-I, which was acquired by Merck & Co. in 2017.[18]

Honors

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References

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  1. ^ HARTMANN, GUNTHER; KRUG, ANNE; EIGLER, ANDREAS; MOELLER, JOCHEN; MURPHY, JOHN; ALBRECHT, RICHARD; ENDRES, STEFAN (1996). "Specific Suppression of Human Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Synthesis by Antisense Oligodeoxynucleotides". Antisense and Nucleic Acid Drug Development. 6 (4). Mary Ann Liebert Inc: 291–299. doi:10.1089/oli.1.1996.6.291. ISSN 1087-2906. PMID 9012865.
  2. ^ Hartmann, G; Krug, A; Waller-Fontaine, K; Endres, S (1996). "Oligodeoxynucleotides enhance lipopolysaccharide-stimulated synthesis of tumor necrosis factor: dependence on phosphorothioate modification and reversal by heparin". Molecular Medicine. 2 (4): 429–38. doi:10.1007/BF03401902. ISSN 1076-1551. PMC 2230162. PMID 8827713.
  3. ^ Rothenfusser, Simon; Hornung, Veit; Krug, Anne; Towarowski, Andreas; Krieg, Arthur M.; Endres, Stefan; Hartmann, Gunther (2001). "Distinct CpG oligonucleotide sequences activate human γ δ T cells via interferon-α/-β". European Journal of Immunology. 31 (12). Wiley: 3525–3534. doi:10.1002/1521-4141(200112)31:12<3525::aid-immu3525>3.0.co;2-5. ISSN 0014-2980. PMID 11745372. S2CID 84508435.
  4. ^ Hornung, Veit; Rothenfusser, Simon; Britsch, Stefanie; Krug, Anne; Jahrsdörfer, Bernd; Giese, Thomas; Endres, Stefan; Hartmann, Gunther (1 May 2002). "Quantitative Expression of Toll-Like Receptor 1–10 mRNA in Cellular Subsets of Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and Sensitivity to CpG Oligodeoxynucleotides". The Journal of Immunology. 168 (9). The American Association of Immunologists: 4531–4537. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.168.9.4531. ISSN 0022-1767. PMID 11970999. S2CID 8006383.
  5. ^ Krug, Anne; Towarowski, Andreas; Britsch, Stefanie; Rothenfusser, Simon; Hornung, Veit; Bals, Robert; Giese, Thomas; Engelmann, Hartmut; Endres, Stefan; Krieg, Arthur M.; Hartmann, Gunther (2001). "Toll-like receptor expression reveals CpG DNA as a unique microbial stimulus for plasmacytoid dendritic cells which synergizes with CD40 ligand to induce high amounts of IL-12". European Journal of Immunology. 31 (10). Wiley: 3026–3037. doi:10.1002/1521-4141(2001010)31:10<3026::aid-immu3026>3.0.co;2-h. ISSN 0014-2980. PMID 11592079. S2CID 84529840.
  6. ^ Krug, Anne; Rothenfusser, Simon; Hornung, Veit; Jahrsdörfer, Bernd; Blackwell, Susan; Ballas, Zuhair K.; Endres, Stefan; Krieg, Arthur M.; Hartmann, Gunther (2001). "Identification of CpG oligonucleotide sequences with high induction of IFN-α/β in plasmacytoid dendritic cells". European Journal of Immunology. 31 (7). Wiley: 2154–2163. doi:10.1002/1521-4141(200107)31:7<2154::aid-immu2154>3.0.co;2-u. ISSN 0014-2980. PMID 11449369. S2CID 83720454.
  7. ^ Hornung, Veit; Guenthner-Biller, Margit; Bourquin, Carole; Ablasser, Andrea; Schlee, Martin; Uematsu, Satoshi; Noronha, Anne; Manoharan, Muthiah; Akira, Shizuo; de Fougerolles, Antonin; Endres, Stefan; Hartmann, Gunther (20 February 2005). "Sequence-specific potent induction of IFN-α by short interfering RNA in plasmacytoid dendritic cells through TLR7". Nature Medicine. 11 (3). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 263–270. doi:10.1038/nm1191. ISSN 1078-8956. PMID 15723075. S2CID 22651710.
  8. ^ Hornung, V.; Ellegast, J.; Kim, S.; Brzozka, K.; Jung, A.; Kato, H.; Poeck, H.; Akira, S.; Conzelmann, K.-K.; Schlee, M.; Endres, S.; Hartmann, G. (10 November 2006). "5'-Triphosphate RNA Is the Ligand for RIG-I". Science. 314 (5801): 994–997. Bibcode:2006Sci...314..964H. doi:10.1126/science.1132505. PMID 17038590. S2CID 22436759.
  9. ^ Schlee, Martin; Roth, Andreas; Hornung, Veit; Hagmann, Cristina Amparo; Wimmenauer, Vera; Barchet, Winfried; Coch, Christoph; Janke, Markus; Mihailovic, Aleksandra; Wardle, Greg; Juranek, Stefan; Kato, Hiroki; Kawai, Taro; Poeck, Hendrik; Fitzgerald, Katherine A.; Takeuchi, Osamu; Akira, Shizuo; Tuschl, Thomas; Latz, Eicke; Ludwig, Janos; Hartmann, Gunther (July 2009). "Recognition of 5′ Triphosphate by RIG-I Helicase Requires Short Blunt Double-Stranded RNA as Contained in Panhandle of Negative-Strand Virus". Immunity. 31 (1): 25–34. doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2009.05.008. PMC 2824854. PMID 19576794.
  10. ^ Schuberth-Wagner, Christine; Ludwig, Janos; Bruder, Ann Kristin; Herzner, Anna-Maria; Zillinger, Thomas; Goldeck, Marion; Schmidt, Tobias; Schmid-Burgk, Jonathan L.; Kerber, Romy; Wolter, Steven; Stümpel, Jan-Philip; Roth, Andreas; Bartok, Eva; Drosten, Christian; Coch, Christoph; Hornung, Veit; Barchet, Winfried; Kümmerer, Beate M.; Hartmann, Gunther; Schlee, Martin (July 2015). "A Conserved Histidine in the RNA Sensor RIG-I Controls Immune Tolerance to N1-2′O-Methylated Self RNA". Immunity. 43 (1): 41–51. doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2015.06.015. PMC 7128463. PMID 26187414.
  11. ^ Gao P, Ascano M, Wu Y, Barchet W, Gaffney BL, Zillinger T, Serganov AA, Liu Y, Jones RA, Hartmann G, Tuschl T, Patel DJ (2013). "Cyclic [G(2',5')pA(3',5')p] is the metazoan second messenger produced by DNA-activated cyclic GMP-AMP synthase". Cell. 153 (5): 1094–1107. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2013.04.046. PMC 4382009. PMID 23647843.
  12. ^ Herzner AM, Hagmann CA, Goldeck M, Wolter S, Kübler K, Wittmann S, Gramberg T, Andreeva L, Hopfner KP, Mertens C, Zillinger T, Jin T, Xiao TS, Bartok E, Coch C, Ackermann D, Hornung V, Ludwig J, Barchet W, Hartmann G, Schlee M (2015). "Sequence-specific activation of the DNA sensor cGAS by Y-form DNA structures as found in primary HIV-1 cDNA". Nat Immunol. 16 (10): 1025–1033. doi:10.1038/ni.3267. PMC 4669199. PMID 26343537.
  13. ^ "Krebshilfe". 2019-06-19.
  14. ^ "Speaker". ImmunoSensation Cluster of Excellence. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  15. ^ "Gunther Hartmann M.D.: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. 29 December 2023.
  16. ^ "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)". www.dfg.de. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  17. ^ "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)". www.dfg.de. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  18. ^ "Merck acquires Rigontec".
  19. ^ BMBF-Wettbewerb BioFuture: Alle Preisträger Archived 2013-07-23 at the Wayback Machine (PDF; 87 kB)
  20. ^ wilhelmvaillantstiftung.de: Informationen zum Wilhelm Vaillant-Preis Archived 2014-02-27 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
  21. ^ "Prizewinners: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme: 2012: Prof. Dr. Gunther Hartmann & Prof. Dr. Christian Kurts". Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  22. ^ "List of Members". German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
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