Assoc. Prof. Petra Hoffmann
Head of Research Group | Immunoregulation & Head of FACS Core
For more than 20 years, Associate Professor Petra Hoffmann has dedicated her work to developing enhanced therapies for acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). This condition arises from a complication that can occur after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and is potentially life-threatening.
An immunologist by background, Associate Professor Petra Hoffmann has focussed on the use of donor-derived regulatory T cells (Tregs) for the cellular therapy of GVHD. Together with Professor Matthias Edinger and Doctor Jörg Ermann (now at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, USA), she published some of the first reports on the protective effect of Tregs in experimental models of GVHD (Hoffmann et al., JExpMed 2002; Edinger et al., Nat Med 2003; Ermann et al., Blood 2005). After her move to Regensburg in 2003, she developed efficient in vitro expansion protocols for human Tregs (Hoffmann et al., Blood 2004), as well as a robust identification and isolation strategy for this rare cell population (Hoffmann et al., Blood 2006). These were both in co-operation with Professor Edinger.
In the years that followed, Associate Professor Hoffmann and Professor Edinger successfully translated this therapeutic approach to clinical application where it is presently being tested in several phase I and II trials. In close collaboration with other groups at the LIT, they have continued to further improve Treg-based immunotherapies by exploring new methods in cellular engineering. An example of this concerns CAR transduction or the transfer of specific T-cell Receptors (TCRs).
Quote from Assoc. Prof. Petra Hoffmann
My research has always been driven by scientific curiosity. Seeing the idea we had several years ago reach the clinic fills me with joy – but also motivates me to look for further improvements.
Head of Research Group Immunoregulation
Biography
Academic background and qualifications
Associate Professor Doctor Hoffmann graduated in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Tübingen sponsored by The German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes). She received her postdoctoral training at the University of Freiburg, Germany, the University of Edinburgh Medical School, Scotland, UK, and at the University of Cologne, Germany (under Andreas Radbruch).
Professional career
From 1999 to 2002, she joined Professor Sam Strober's laboratory team in the Department of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University, CA, USA where she started her work on regulatory T cells. In 2003, she moved to the University of Regensburg; first to the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the University Hospital, and later to the Leibniz Institute for Immunotherapy. She habilitated in Experimental Medicine in Regensburg and co-heads the Immunoregulation Research Group.
Honors
Assoc. Prof. Petra Hoffmann received a grant from 'The German Academic Scholarship Foundation' (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) to carry out her doctoral studies and a research grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for her postdoctoral studies in Edinburgh and Cologne.
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