Thomas Baumert
Chair of Translational Medicine
Thomas F. Baumert, MD is professor of medicine, director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Liver Disease (Inserm U1110), director of the Laboratory of Excellence HepSYS at the University of Strasbourg and chief of gastroenterology at the Center for Digestive Disease and Hepatology, University Hospital of Strasbourg (France). He received his MD from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). Following his doctoral thesis at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and his internship in internal medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, he was a fellow at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Liver Diseases Branch at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. He subsequently joined the Department of Medicine at the University Hospital in Freiburg (Germany) to become a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist, associate professor, and to establish his laboratory focusing on the molecular pathogenesis of viral hepatitis and liver disease. He then relocated to the University of Strasbourg as full professor of medicine to create and head a new French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) research unit and establish a highly recognized program in translational hepatology. Furthermore, he spent an academic year as research scholar the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge (USA) and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
His research focuses on the modelling and discovery of the cell circuits underlying fibrosis progressing to cancer using liver disease as a model. The understanding of the molecular mechanisms of disease biology enabled his laboratory to uncover novel compounds and strategies for treatment of fibrosis and cancer which have been translated to the patient. Professor Baumert has received many awards including the Hans Popper Young Investigator Award, the Chair of Excellence and Laboratory of Excellence Awards of the French National Research Agency (ANR), the Infectious Disease Award of the German Society for Infectious Diseases, the Prix Galien, the Mémain-Pelletier Award of the French Academy of Science, the Inserm Research Award and the Marigny Cancer Award. He has published over 400 scientific articles including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Cell, Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology as a senior author, and is the inventor of over 25 patents and patent applications. He has received two ERC Advanced Grants, five ERC Proof of Concept Grants and is supported by the European Union (H2020), the ANR and private foundations and industry. He has also received funding from the US National Institutes of Health (NCI, NIDDK, NIAID).
Thomas Baumert has served multiple terms as Associate Editor of the Journal of Hepatology and is a member of the editorial board of several journals in the field of gastroenterology, hepatology and virology. He is a member of the US, European and Asian Liver Societies (AASLD, EASL, APASL), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and elected member of the American Association of Physicians (AAP). Furthermore, he is the founder, advisor and permanent guest to the board of Alentis Therapeutics – a clinical stage biotech company developing novel therapeutics for fibrotic diseases and cancer.
