Education
Hartmut Wekerle studied medicine at the University of Freiburg where he also gained his Doctor of Philosophy.
Hartmut Wekerle studied medicine at the University of Freiburg where he also gained his Doctor of Philosophy.
He is director at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and head of the department Neuroimmunology. As a post-doctoral researcher, he worked at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) and the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg. Afterwards, he led the Research Group for Multiple Sclerosis at the Institute of Clinical Neurobiology at the University Hospital of the University of Würzburg.
In 1988, he was appointed director at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology.
Hartmut Wekerle’s scientific research is focused on the underlying reasons and mechanisms of diseases which arise due to a conflict between the immune system and the nervous system, his main focus being on multiple sclerosis. Hartmut Wekerle’s work led to a number of scientific findings.
Among these were the discoveries of potentially autoaggressive T lymphocytes in a healthy immune system. (Schlüsener & Wekerle, J Immunol 1985) the specialized organization of the immune response in the nervous system.
(Fontana et al, Nature 1984) the role of B cells in autoimmune reactions of the nervous system.
(Krishnamoorthy et al, J Clin Invest 2006).
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]
Since 1995 Wekerle is a leading member of the German Cancer Aid and its "Doctor Mildred Scheel Foundation for Cancer Research". Member of LEOPOLDINA (German Academy of Natural Scientists, 2002).