Bjoern Schwer

Bjoern Schwer is a Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). His research focuses on the interplay between DNA repair, chromatin regulation, and transcriptional control in neural stem/progenitor cells, with a particular emphasis on neurodevelopment, brain function, and diseases such as medulloblastoma. He leads a laboratory investigating genome instability and chromosomal rearrangements in neural progenitors.

• Education: MD from University of Heidelberg (2003), PhD in Tumor Virology from University of Heidelberg (2005)
• Postdoctoral training: Mitochondrial metabolism and Sirtuin biology at UCSF Gladstone Institute (2007), DNA repair and Chromatin biology at Harvard/Boston Children's Hospital (2010)

Research Interests

• Mechanisms of DNA double-strand breaks in neural cells
• Chromatin accessibility and gene expression in brain tumors
• Role of PRDM6 in medulloblastoma formation
• Genomic instability in neurodegeneration and aging

Publication Trends Recent work highlights PRDM6 as a chromatin repressor in medulloblastoma, DNA repair mechanisms in neural aging, and innovative models for studying brain tumor development. His studies span neuro-oncology, epigenetics, and DNA damage responses.

Scientific Awards

• DAAD Biomedical Exchange Fellowship (2001)
• Heidelberg Doctoral 'summa cum laude' (2005)
• Sandler Postdoctoral Fellowship (2006)
• Ellison Medical Foundation Fellowship (2008)
• NIH Career Development Award (2012)
• V Foundation Scholar Award (2013)
• UCSF Brain Tumor SPORE Award (2016-2017)
• Haderle Endowed Chair (2017)
• Kimmel Scholar (2019)
• Ludwig Award for Early Career Research (2021)
• Bakar Aging Research Institute Investigator (2021)

Labs & Teams Schwer leads a research group at UCSF Department of Medicine, collaborating with neuro-oncology and chromatin biology teams. His lab uses advanced models like neural blastocyst complementation to study brain development and tumorigenesis.