Satellite Symposium

Georg A. Schett

CAR T cell therapy in autoimmune diseases

Department of Medicine 3 – Rheumatology and Immunology Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Biosketch

Georg Schett is Professor of Internal Medicine and since 2006 head of the Department of Medicine 3 – Rheumatology and Immunology at Uniklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.

Professor Schett graduated from the University of Innsbruck (Austria) in 1994. After his dissertation from medical school, he worked as scientist at the Institute of BioMedical Aging Research of the Austrian Academy of Science in Innsbruck. Two years later, he joined the Department of Medicine at the University of Vienna, where he completed his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and subsequently in Rheumatology. In 2003 he was promoted to professor of Internal Medicine. Before accepting his position as the chair of the Department of Internal Medicine 3 in Erlangen, he worked as a scientist in the United States of America for one year.

Georg Schett’s scientific work includes a broad spectrum of clinical and immunological issues, particularly the molecular basics of immune-inflammatory diseases. Initially, he investigated the immunology of atherosclerosis and focused on antibody-mediated endothelial cell damage. His research work led to the understanding of the phenomenon of LE-cells in 2007. He was awarded the renowned START Award in 2002 and established a research group for arthritis in Vienna. In 2008, he initiated in collaboration with colleagues the priority program IMMUNOBONE in Germany, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). IMMUNOBONE aims to elucidate the interactions between the skeletal and the immune systems. Since 2015, Prof. Schett has led the DFG collaborative research centre 1181 “Checkpoints for Resolution of Inflammation” in Erlangen. Additionally, he is spokesperson of the project METARTHROS, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which investigates the impact of the metabolism on arthritis. In 2019, he received funding for the ERC-Synergy grant “4D+ nanoSCOPE Advancing osteoporosis medicine by observing bone microstructure and remodelling using a four-dimensional nanoscope” of which he is spokesperson. 4D nanoSCOPE aims to develop tools and techniques to permit time-resolved imaging and characterization of bone in three spatial dimensions (both in vitro and in vivo), thereby permitting monitoring of bone remodelling and revolutionizing the understanding of bone morphology and its function.
In 2021, Prof. Schett was appointed Vice President for Research at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and became a Leopoldina member of the German National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Schett’s scientific work has been honored with several awards, including the Carol-Nachman Prize from Wiesbaden. In March 2023, Prof. Schett received the 2023 “Funding Prize in the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme” awarded by the DFG. He has published over 1000 peer-reviewed papers.

Antonio Lanzavecchia

National Institute of Molecular Genetics (INGM), Milan, Italy