Institute of Clinical Chemistry & Clinical Pharmacology
Medical Faculty, University of Bonn University Hospital of Bonn Venusberg - Campus 1 53127 Bonn
For over 20 years, Prof Hartmann’s research focus has been nucleic acid sensing in the broader context of nucleic acid immunity, and he has made fundamental contributions to the identification, characterization and immunobiology of nucleic acid ligands of TLR7, TLR8, TLR9, RIG-I, STING and cGAS. His group has discovered a pivotal mechanism by which RIG-I discriminates between foreign and self RNA, which is highly relevant for the development of improved mRNA vaccines. He has characterized the role of NLRP3 in NK-cell memory, has contributed to the discovery of cyclic [G(2’,5’) pA(3’,5’)p] (cGAMP), the metazoan second messenger in the cGAS- STING pathway, and to the identification of Y-form DNA as a minimal ligand for cGAS, and has demonstrated that RIG-I-triggered innate antiviral immunity can be used for prophylaxis and for treatment of viral infections such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 in vivo.
