Invited Faculty
  • Lothar Hennighausen
    Nat'l Institutes of Health
    USA
  • Lothar Hennighausen is a geneticist whose career includes contributions in academia and government. He performed undergraduate work in Germany and Scotland and earned his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Cologne (Germany). He conducted post-doctoral research with Dr. Philip Leder at Harvard and established his research group at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland in 1985. He has published more than 300 papers with over 42,000 citations and an h-index of 112, and he holds several patents. He also has received scientific awards, including the Humboldt Senior Research Award, a Mercator Professorship by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, a World Class Scholarship by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation and he is currently a Senior Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Study at the Technical University Munich.
    Hennighausen presently focuses on exploring genetic circuitry of cytokine signaling using genomic tools and mouse genetics. His research covers the more prosaic investigations of milk protein gene expression, the wide-reaching explorations of cytokine signaling through JAK/STAT components and the discovery of super-enhancers in the mammary genome through genome editing. Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, he initiated international partnerships with clinicians in Austria, Italy, Germany and Korea and investigated the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 variants and vaccination. For this, his team uses genome-wide technologies and identifies genetic programs activated by COVID-19 and different vaccines. This work received wide scientific and media attention. Hennighausen has long-standing research partnerships with Korean Universities. Numerous post-doctoral fellows and graduate students that came to his laboratory for advanced training in molecular genetics now hold positions in Korea in Academia, Industry and Government.
    Dr. Hennighausen takes the same enthusiastic approach to activities outside the lab as he does inside. He is an avid ultra-long-distance cyclist and finisher of numerous 1200km events, including Paris-Brest-Paris and events around the world and in Korea. He is the founder of the “Korea Randonneurs” the ultra-long-distance cycling club of Korea with more than 10,000 members.
    Research & Clinical Focus

    cytokine signaling

    immune responses

    next generation sequencing

    genome editing

    • Date Time Room Session Title Lecture Title
    May 18 17:00-17:20 Room Grand Ballroom 101 [Concurrent Session 4] Cytokines and Cell Signaling Deconvoluting JAK/STAT building blocks in development and disease