Frank Brombacher PhD

Prof. F. Brombacher, PhD is the current Coordinator for Immunology and Infectious Diseases and Group leader for ‘Cytokines & Disease’ at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) Cape Town component since 2008. His group investigates fundamental immunological mechanisms in human diseases, including tuberculosis, African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and helminthic infections, including bilharzia - four of the top ten WHO declared human threats to combat-, in addition to chronic diseases like allergic asthma and colitis. His research strategy is based on knowledge by gain or loss of function approaches in experimental transgenic mouse models. Together with transcriptomics and proteomics approaches biomarkers and host-directed drug targets are identified and verified in humans. His current h-index is 70 with over 20000 citations and over 200 international peer-reviewed publications.

Frank studied Biology at the Alberts-Ludwigs University Freiburg, Germany with Diploma in Genetics, 1986; PhD in Molecular Immunology at the Max Planck Institute (MPI), 1989, pioneering transgenic mouse models in the group of Nobel Laureate G. Koehler, thereafter, Research Fellow at MPI at Sandoz Ag (now Novartis), Switzerland He was called back to the MPI as Group Leader in 1994, working on infectious diseases using knockout mouse models. In 1998, he moved to the University of Cape Town, South Africa, was awarded by NRF as A-rated researcher and an International Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and holds a South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Unit.