Christoph Heusser

Dr. Christoph Heusser, Head of Immunology, is an immunology expert who pioneered antibody-based therapies and antibody-mediated effector functions. He was Head of Immunology at Ciba-Geigy and Head of the Transplantation- Immunology Unit at Novartis and gave lectures on antibody-based interventions at the University Basel for 15 years. During this time, he initiated and executed several intervention strategies in the area of allergy, autoimmunity, and transplantation. He co-invented the concept of anti-IgE treatment, which resulted in the development of Xolair, - an antibody drug for the treatment of moderate to severe persistent allergic asthma and chronic spontaneous urticaria, - and the follow-up drug Ligelizumab. He was a Ciba-Geigy Fellow and nominated Novartis Distinguished Scientist and served as Principal Research Investigator at the Novartis Research Institutes of Biomedical Research.

Dr. Heusser received his Dr. sc. nat. in Biochemistry and Immunology from the ETH Zürich, discovered the diversity of Fc-receptors in Denver, and was a member at the Basel Institute for Immunology, working on B cell immune regulation, before he devoted his energy to medicinal immunological research. Since several years Dr. Heusser supports different biotech companies as consultant and advisor.