(Vienna, 25-02-2024) Florian Krammer will take up the Professorship of Infection Medicine (§98) at the Medical University of Vienna on 1 March 2024. The internationally renowned expert in vaccine development comes to Vienna from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (USA). His work will alternate between the two institutions.
Florian Krammer is Professor of Vaccinology in the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His laboratory investigates antibody responses to RNA viruses. The main focus is on influenza viruses, but antibody responses to coronaviruses, hantaviruses, filoviruses and other emerging RNA viruses are also of interest. In their studies, the researchers want to elucidate the mechanisms by which these antibodies protect the host from viral infection and disease. The aim is to translate these findings into novel vaccines and therapeutics, and a universal influenza virus vaccine developed by Florian Krammer and his team is currently in clinical development.
Florian Krammer's focus in Vienna will be on characterising viral pathogens and developing vaccines and therapies against them with special emphasis on viruses with pandemic potential, also from a local, Austrian perspective. In addition, his research will include human respiratory viruses such as human influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2.
"I am delighted to welcome Florian Krammer to MedUni Vienna," explains Rector Markus Müller in a statement, "his expertise in the field of infection medicine will make a significant contribution to research in this important area. We look forward to benefiting from his expertise and experience and working together to further advance medical research."
About the person
Florian Krammer studied biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. His dissertation focussed on glycoproteins and influenza viruses. Since 2010, Krammer has been researching universal influenza vaccines and vaccines against corona, Lassa, Hanta and Ebola viruses at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine a Mount Sinai. Since 2019, he has been the endowed Mount Sinai Professor in Vaccinology and Principal Investigator of the Sinai-Emory Multi-Institutional Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centre (SEM-CIVIC). The goal of SEM-CIVIC is to develop improved seasonal and universal influenza virus vaccines that provide long-lasting protection against seasonal, zoonotic and future pandemic influenza viruses. Krammer is also co-director of the Centre for Vaccine Research and Pandemic Preparedness (C-VaRPP).
The Krammer lab - which is also part of the NIH-funded Centre of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR) - focuses on understanding broadly protective immune responses against the surface glycoproteins of RNA viruses such as influenza virus with the aim of developing better vaccines and new therapeutics.
Florian Krammer has published more than 400 papers, is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Virology, Plos One, Plos Pathogens and Vaccine, is an elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Henry Kunkel Society, sits on the Board of Directors of the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI) and is one of the chairs of the SAVE initiative which is monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants for the US National Institutes of Health.
Florian Krammer - professorship for infection medicine
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