Dirk Busch

Prof. Dirk Busch is a Professor and Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene at the Technische Universität München (TUM). He leads the focus group 'Clinical Cell Processing and Purification' at TUM's Institute for Advanced Study. His research focuses on infection immunology, particularly antigen-specific T cell mechanisms and translational applications in immune cell-based therapies. He chairs the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) and is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Education: Studied medicine in Mainz and Freiburg (1993), completed clinical training in pediatric infectious diseases at Würzburg (1993–1996), and held a DFG scholarship at Yale University (1996–1999). Qualified as a professor in 2003 and completed his residency in medical microbiology at TUM in 2005.

Research interests include developing diagnostic tools and cell therapies using immune cells, with a focus on T cell engineering and chronic infection dynamics. He co-founded STAGE Cell Therapeutics GmbH and T Cell Factory BV. Awards include the Science Day Award (2008), Wilhelm Vaillant Prize (2003), and Gerhard Hess Research Prize (2000).

Key research contributions span T cell receptor engineering, memory T cell biology, and MHC multimer-based cell isolation techniques. His work bridges basic immunology with clinical applications in cell therapy and infection control.