Dr. Guenter Weiss

Biography

I studied medicine at the University of Innsbruck and performed a thesis at the Institute for Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry. I then joined as a post –doctoral fellow the group of Helmut Wachter at the Department of Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry. I moved then to the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Innsbruck for my medical training in internal medicine which I interrupted for another post-doctoral fellowship at the EMBL in the group of Matthias Hentze to work on cytoplasmic gene regulation in iron homeostasis. I build up my own research group thereafter based on the continuous support of the FWF and other funding organizations, successfully completed two habilitations (Medical Biochemistry, Internal Medicine) and tried to combine my clinical work and duties with my enthusiasm in the laboratory. Currently, I am professor of medicine at the Medical Unvierstiy of Innsbruck (§98) and director of the Division of Internal Medicine VI (infectious diseases, immunology, rheumatology, pneumology), In 2015 I was elected into the Austrian Academy of Science as a corresponding member. My research focuses on the one hand on multiple aspects of cellular and systemic iron homeostasis and their dysregulation in specific pathological conditions including anemia of chronic disease and iron overload, and on the regulatory network between iron homeostasis, immune function and infection with a specific emphasis to intracellular bacteria residing in the phagolysosome. Further I am interested in the evaluation of the role of innate resistance genes of macrophages and their functional impact on host control of infection and orchestration of innate and adaptive immune responses, and we study how metabolic alterations (metals, lipids, hormones, peptides) of the host or microbial environment affects the course of infections or auto-diseases immune diseases.

Research Interest

cellular and systemic iron homeostasis and associated pathologies, host-pathogen interactions, innate immunity