Visiting Scientist: PD Dr. med. Olaf Penack, Charité Berlin

The role of the endothelium in allogeneic transplantations

Dr. Olaf Penack is a Senior Physician in the Medical Deptartment of the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Tumor Immunology at Charité Hospital Berlin (Virchow Campus). In this talk, he will discuss the urgent need for novel therapeutic approaches to improve survival of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), which is the only curative treatment for many patients with hematologic malignancies. However, survival after HSCT is <50% because patients die frequently from graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) or tumor relapses.  Recent research has identified the endothelium as a therapeutic target in GVHD as well as in tumors. Dr. Penack’s laboratory works with pre-clinical murine HSCT models and their main aims are: 1) to better understand the function of the endothelium during HSCT, and 2) to develop endothelium based therapies after HSCT.