Prof. Dr. med. Veit Hornung
Genzentrum und Department für Biochemie
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Butenandstr.1
D-81377 München
Phone: +49 089 2180 71110
E-Mail: hornung@genzentrum.lmu.de
University training and degree
1996-2003 Study of Medicine at the University of Munich, LMU, Germany, including rotations at Harvard University (Boston, USA) and University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland)
Advanced academic qualifications
2004 Doctorate (Dr. med.). Doctoral thesis in the lab of Prof. Dr. Gunther Hartmann, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital, University of Munich, LMU, Germany (thesis supervisor Prof. Dr. Stefan Endres)
Postgraduate professional career
since 2015 Chair of Immunobiochemistry, BioSysM, Gene Center and Department of Biochemistry, LMU, Munich, Germany
2014 – 2015 Director, Institute of Molecular Medicine, University Hospital, University of Bonn, Germany
2008 – 2013 Professor of Clinical Biochemistry (W2), Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital, University of Bonn, Germany
2006 – 2008 Postdoctoral research fellow, laboratories of Prof. Dr. Eicke Latz and Prof. Dr. Kate Fitzgerald in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, USA
2005 – 2006 Group leader ‘Therapeutic Oligonucleotides’, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, LMU
2003 – 2006 Research fellow / Postdoctoral research fellow, laboratory of Prof. Dr. Gunther Hartmann in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, LMU
2020 William B. Coley Award (Cancer Research Institute)
2018 Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Life Sciences
2018 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (DFG)
2016 Elected member of the Leopoldina
2015 ERC Consolidator Grant
2015 Elected EMBO member
2014 Designated as a Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Immunology by Thomson Reuters
2013 Pettenkofer Prize of the Pettenkofer Foundation
2010 Paul-Martini-Prize of the Paul-Martini-Foundation
2010 Award for Basic Medical Research of the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation
2009 ERC Starting Grant
2007 Heinz Maier Leibnitz Prize of the German Research Foundation
2006 Graduate-Scholarship of the Novartis-Foundation for Therapeutical Research
2002 Study Scholarship of the Munich-Harvard-Alliance
2000 – 2003 Fellow of the German National Academic Foundation (“Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes”)
a) Articles published by outlets with scientific quality assurance, book publications and works accepted for publication, but not yet published
1. Hornung V, Ellegast J, Kim S, Brzozka K, Jung A, Kato H, Poeck H, Akira S, Conzelmann KK, Schlee M, Endres S, Hartmann G, “5′-Triphosphate RNA is the ligand for RIG-I”. Science 314: 994-7 (2006)
2. Hornung V*, Bauernfeind F*, Halle A, Samstad EO, Kono H, Rock KL, Fitzgerald KA, Latz E, “Silica crystals and aluminum salts activate the NALP3 inflammasome through phagosomal destabilization”. Nat Immunol 9: 847-56 (2008)
3. Hornung V, Ablasser A, Charrel-Dennis M, Bauernfeind F, Horvath G, Caffrey DR, Latz E, Fitzgerald KA, “AIM2 recognizes cytosolic dsDNA and forms a caspase-1-activating inflammasome with ASC”. Nature 458: 514-8 (2009)
4. Bartok E, Bauernfeind F, Khaminets MG, Jakobs C, Monks B, Fitzgerald KA, Latz E, Hornung V, “iGLuc: a luciferase-based inflammasome and protease activity reporter”. Nat Methods 10: 147-154 (2013)
5. Schmid-Burgk JL, Schmidt T, Kaiser V, Honing K, Hornung V, “A ligation-independent cloning technique for high-throughput assembly of transcription activator-like effector genes”. Nat Biotechnol 31: 76-81 (2013)
6. Ablasser A, Goldeck M, Cavlar T, Deimling T, Witte G, Rohl I, Hopfner KP, Ludwig J, Hornung V, “cGAS produces a 2′-5′-linked cyclic dinucleotide second messenger that activates STING”. Nature 498: 380-4 (2013)
7. Ablasser A, Schmid-Burgk JL, Hemmerling I, Horvath GL, Schmidt T, Latz E, Hornung V, “Cell intrinsic immunity spreads to bystander cells via the intercellular transfer of cGAMP”. Nature 503: 530-4 (2013)
8. Gaidt MM, Ebert TS, Chauhan D, Schmidt T, Schmid-Burgk JL, Rapino F, Robertson AA, Cooper MA, Graf T, Hornung V, “Human Monocytes Engage an Alternative Inflammasome Pathway”. Immunity 44: 833-46 (2016)
9. Gaidt MM, Ebert TS, Chauhan D, Ramshorn K, Pinci F, Zuber S, O’Duill F, Schmid-Burgk JL, Hoss F, Buhmann R, Wittmann G, Latz E, Subklewe M, Hornung V, “The DNA Inflammasome in Human Myeloid Cells Is Initiated by a STING-Cell Death Program Upstream of NLRP3”. Cell 171: 1110-1124.e18 (2017)
10. Greulich W, Wagner M, Gaidt MM, Stafford C, Cheng Y, Linder A, Carell T*, Hornung V*, “TLR8 Is a Sensor of RNase T2 Degradation Products”. Cell 179:1264-1275.e13 (2019)
* equal contributions