The good physician treats the disease the great physician treats the patient who has the disease

Thomas Korn

Researcher

Symposium 8 | NMO and MOGAD

BIOGRAPHY

Current position
Institute Director, Institute for Experimental Neuroimmunology
Technical University of Munich School of Medicine, Munich, Germany

Academic training
1999 – 2005 | Residency in Clinical Neurology (Universities of Würzburg and Homburg/Saar). Board approval as Fellow in Neurology (Facharzt)

1995 – 2000 | Doctoral thesis (MD), Institute of Cell Biology, University of Würzburg

1992 – 1999 | Medical School at the Universities of Würzburg and London, UK (Julius-Maximilians-Universität and The Royal London School of Medicine)

Academic degrees
2009 | Professoral thesis (Habilitation), Technical University of Munich School of Medicine

2000 | MD (summa cum laude), University of Würzburg

1999 | Medical State Exam, University of Würzburg

Postgraduate positions

Since 2017 Deputy Chairman at the Dept. of Neurology, Technical University of Munich School of Medicine, Germany

Since 2015 Full Professor of Neurology, Technical University of Munich School of Medicine, Germany

2010 − 2015 | Associate Professor of Neurology and Heisenberg Professor, Technical University of Munich School of Medicine, Germany

2009 − 2010 | Heisenberg Grant Awardee and Group leader, Technical University of Munich

Since 2008 Senior Physician in Neurology, Klinikum rechts der Isar

2005 − 2008 Postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School (Kuchroo laboratory), Boston, USA

2001 – 2005 | Postdoctoral research fellow in Neuroimmunology and junior group leader, Dept. of Neurology, University of Homburg/Saar

Honors and awards

2023 | Sobek Award

2015 – 2021 | ERC consolidator grant

2011 | Hans-Jörg Weitbrecht Award for Clinical Neurosciences

2010 | Heinrich-Pette-Award (German Society of Neurology)

2008 | Heisenberg-Award by the German Research Council

2008 | Sobek Junior Award

2007 | Helmut-Bauer-Award by the University of Göttingen

1992 – 1999 | Bavarian State grant for outstanding students

Professional activities

Reviewer for funding agencies: DFG, Israel Science Foundation, MRC (UK), Medical Research Scotland, ARSEP, Australian MS Society, Italian MS Society, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds, European Research Council

Reviewer for Journals: Nat Rev Immunol, Science, Nat Immunol, Immunity, Sci Immunol, J Exp Med, J Clin Invest, Trends in Immunol, Nat communications, PNAS, Ann Neurol, Brain, Cell reports, Neurology, J Leuk Biol, J Immunol, Eur J Immunol

Membership in research consortia: German Neurological Society (DGN), German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and Functional Imaging (DGKN), NEUROWIND (founding member), American Association of Immunologists, SyNergy Excellence Cluster, Collaborative Research Centers (SFB) 1054, TRR128, TRR274, and TRR355 (cospeaker)

Since 2017 National Committee for the Development of Clinical Guidelines for Multiple Sclerosis

Since 2016 Scientific Advisory Board of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISNI)

Since 2010 Scientific Advisory Board of the German Multiple Sclerosis Society (DMSG)

Ten most important publications

Afzali AM, Nirschl L, Sie C, Pfaller M, Ulianov O, Hassler T, Federle C, Petrozziello E, Kalluri SR, Chen HH, Tyystjärvi S, Muschaweckh A, Lammens K, Delbridge C, Büttner A, Steiger K, Seyhan G, Ottersen OP, Öllinger R, Rad R, Jarosch S, Straub A, Mühlbauer A, Grassmann S, Hemmer B, Böttcher JP, Wagner I, Kreutzfeldt M, Merkler D, Bonafonte Pardàs I, Schmidt-Supprian M, Buchholz VR, Heink S, Busch DH, Klein L & Korn T. (2024) B cells orchestrate tolerance to the neuromyelitis optica autoantigen AQP4. Nature, [In Press].

Sie C, Kant R, Peter C, Muschaweckh A, Pfaller M, Nirschl L, Domínguez Moreno H, Chadimová T, Lepennetier G, Kuhlmann T, Öllinger R, Engleitner T, Rad R & Korn T. (2022) IL-24 intrinsically regulates Th17 cell pathogenicity in mice. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 219(8):e20212443.

Hiltensperger M, Beltrán E, Kant R, Tyystjärvi S, Lepennetier G, Domínguez Moreno H, Bauer IJ, Grassmann S, Jarosch S, Schober K, Buchholz VR, Kenet S, Gasperi C, Öllinger R, Rad R, Muschaweckh A, Sie C, Aly L, Knier B, Garg G, Afzali AM, Gerdes LA, Kümpfel T, Franzenburg S, Kawakami N, Hemmer B, Busch DH, Misgeld T, Dornmair K & Korn T. (2021) Skin and gut imprinted T helper cell subsets exhibit distinct functional phenotypes in central nervous system autoimmunity. Nature Immunology, 22 (7): 880-892.

Knier B, Hiltensperger M, Sie C, Aly L, Lepennetier G, Engleitner T, Garg G, Muschaweckh A, Mitsdörffer M, Koedel U, Höchst B, Knolle P, Gunzer M, Hemmer B, Rad R, Merkler D & Korn T. (2018) Myeloidderived suppressor cells control B cells within the central nervous system during autoimmunity. Nature Immunology, 19 (12): 1341-1351.

Heink S, Yogev N, Garbers C, Herwerth M, Aly L, Gasperi C, Husterer V, Croxford AL, Möller-Hackbarth K, Bartsch HS, Sotlar K, Krebs S, Regen T, Blum H, Hemmer B, Misgeld T, Wunderlich TF, Hidalgo J, Oukka M, Rose-John S, Schmidt-Supprian M, Waisman A & Korn T. (2017) Dendritic cells are nonredundant sources of IL-6 for the priming of pathogenic Th17 cells due to a novel mode of IL-6 signaling. Nature Immunology, 18: 74-85.

Heinemann C, Heink S, Petermann F, Vasanthakumar A, Rothhammer V, Doorduijn E, Mitsdoerffer M, Sie C, Prazeres da Costa O, Buch T, Hemmer B, Oukka M, Kallies A & Korn T. (2014) IL-27 and IL-12 oppose pro-inflammatory IL-23 in CD4+ T cells by inducing Blimp1. Nature Communications, 5: 3770-3782.

Rothhammer V, Heink S, Petermann F, Srivastava R, Claussen MC, Hemmer B & Korn T. (2011) Th17 lymphocytes traffic to the central nervous system independently of α4 integrin expression during EAE. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 208: 2465-2476.

Petermann F, Rothhammer V, Claussen MC, Haas JD, Riol-Blanco L, Heink S, Prinz I, Hemmer B, Kuchroo VK, Oukka M & Korn T. (2010) γδ T cells enhance autoimmunity by restraining Treg responses via an IL-23 dependent mechanism. Immunity, 33: 351-363.

Korn T*, Bettelli E*, Gao W*, Awasthi A, Jäger A, Strom TB, Oukka M & Kuchroo VK. (2007) IL-21 initiates an alternative pathway to induce proinflammatory TH17 cells. Nature, 448: 484-487. *Contributed equally

Korn T, Reddy J, Gao W, Bettelli E, Awasthi A, Petersen TR, Bäckström BT, Sobel RA, Wucherpfennig KW, Strom TB, Oukka M & Kuchroo VK. (2007) Myelin-specific regulatory T cells accumulate in the CNS but fail to control autoimmune inflammation. Nature Medicine, 13: 423-431.