Prof. em. Dr. Manfred Kopf

Manfred Kopf has been Full Professor of Molecular Biomedicine at ETH Zurich since August 2001.

He was born on January 04, 1960, and grew up in Freiburg, Germany, where he studied Biology. He did his diploma and doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in the laboratory of novel laureate Georges Köhler. From 1995 to 2001, he continued his career as an independent scientific member of the Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland.

His research focuses on the immune system and the cellular and molecular mechanisms of host defense against various pathogens including parasites, bacteria, and viruses. Experiments are designed to understand gene function in a complex organism with particular emphasis on molecules involved in inflammation and cellular communication during immune responses. Lately his group investigated pathogenic mechanisms of asthma and autoimmune heart inflammation. In 1995, his studies on the role of cytokines in infectious diseases were awarded with the Otto Hahn medal and the Hans Spemann prize.