Scientific Advisory Board
Roland Lauster
Dr. Lauster is a professor at the Technische Universität Berlin and head of the university’s Department of Medical Biotechnology. He is also a faculty member in the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies. Dr. Lauster does research on the molecular biology of rheumatic disease as well as on stem cells, development and signaling in the mammalian hair follicle. He received his habilitation in the genetics department at the Free University of Berlin.
Previously, he was a group leader at the German Arthritis Research Center (DRFZ) in Berlin. Prior to that, he was a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology. He received his Ph.D. degree at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. He studied biology at the University of Bielefeld and at the Free University of Berlin.
Hans-Dieter Volk
Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Volk has been director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) since its establishment in 2006. In addition, he is head of the Institute of Medical Immunology at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin since 1994, and the Department of Immunology of the Labor Berlin-Charité Vivantes GmbH since 2011. Taking a translational approach, Prof. Volk combines basic and clinical research in immunology. This has allowed him and his team to develop new diagnostic products and therapies for immune diseases, which are already on the market.
His research work focuses on the development of biomarkers, transplantation immunology, the immunopathogenesis of virus infections of the herpes group of viruses, and the role of inhibitory cytokines and regulatory T cells. Hans-Dieter Volk works closely with other research groups at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the BCRT as well as a number of biotech and pharma companies and the Charité Research Organization GmbH to translate his research findings into clinical applications as quickly as possible. The institute has spawned a number of successful biotech spin-off companies including Jerini AG, ProBioGen AG, T Cell Europe GmbH and Cellserve GmbH.