Kaan Boztug
LBG GbmH, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (LBI-RUD)
Austria
Early during my medical studies at the Universities of Düsseldorf, Freiburg, and London, I discovered an urgent desire to develop an in-depth molecular understanding of human diseases and to use that knowledge for the development of better therapeutic strategies. Accordingly, I followed a dual career track Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Hannover Medical School and discovered the molecular basis of previously undiscovered diseases such as G6PC3 deficiency (Boztug K et al NEJM 2009). I moved to the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine in 2011 where I built up a competitive, gender-balanced, multidisciplinary international research group. Together with my team, I discovered >10 new inborn errors of immunity, published as lead author in journals like NEJM (5x), Nature Genetics, Nature Immunology, Nature Communications (2x), Gastroenterology and others. Besides these research activities, I am a Consultant in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Head of Immunology at the St. Anna Children’s Hospital and the Medical University of Vienna. In recognition of the excellence of our work, I have received an ERC Starting Grant and ERC Consolidator Grant. I have been the founding director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases in Vienna since 2016 and have been appointed additionally as the Scientific Director of the St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute in 2019.