Stephan Urban

Professor Stephan Urban is head of the Translational Virology unit at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Molecular Virology at Heidelberg University Hospital. He completed his Diploma in Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen in 1991 and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1995 under Prof. Dr. P.H. Hofschneider at the Max-Planck-Institut for biochemistry, Martinsried. He undertook his postdoctoral research at the Centre for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), Heidelberg University with Prof. Dr. H. Schaller. Between 2008 and 2012 he was a project leader of the BMBF-network "Innovative therapies” and since 2011 he is coordinator in the hepatitis unit of the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF).

Professor Urban’s research interests include molecular mechanisms of Hepatitis B- and Hepatitis D Virus/host interactions with a focus on the early and late events of viral infection; identification of hepadnaviral receptors and structural analyses of virus receptor interactions; development of novel cell culture systems and animal models for HBV and HDV; clinical development of entry inhibitors for HBV and HDV infection; development of hepatotropic drugs for the therapy of liver diseases; development of diagnostic tools for chronic hepatitis D.