Ulrich Schaible

After studying biology with a focus on zoology, ecology, cultural anthropology, and microbiology, volunteering as local radio presenter for the environmental magazine Global 3000, and completing community service in nature conservation, I did my doctorate on vaccine development against tick-borne borreliosis at the Max Planck Institute for Immunology. As postdoc I turned my attention to the cell biology of intracellular pathogens, mycobacteria and leishmania, at Washington University in St. Louis, USA, then focused on host-pathogen interactions of one of the most important human infections, tuberculosis. I first pursued this research at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin until 2006, then as Professor of Immunology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and finally, after my appointment in 2008 as Director at the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center, and Professor of Immunochemistry & Biochemical Microbiology at the University of Lübeck, where I am chairing the MSc course Infection Biology. Today, my team studies how pathogen niches influence immunity, transmission, pathogenesis, long-term sequelae (post-TB), and therapy, aiming at new prevention and treatment strategies. Recently, we expanded this research to new anti-TB therapeutics, the role of microbiomes in infections and other antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Our studies are conducted in test tubes, cell cultures, mouse models, and patient cohorts together with international partners. The silent pandemic of antimicrobial-resistant infections is subject of the true interdisciplinary Leibniz Research Alliance INFECTIONS, which I have been leading since 2015, and which currently includes 16 other Leibniz Institutes of various scientific disciplines.