Lars Hangartner

Lars Hangartner, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research. His research focuses on antibody Fc effector functions, polyclonal antibody response analysis, and IgA-mediated antiviral immunity. He leads efforts to develop technologies for rapid epitope mapping and investigates HIV vaccine strategies to enhance protective immune responses.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2002)
• M.S. in Molecular Biology, University of Zurich (1997)

Research Interests:

Dr. Hangartner’s work spans three core areas: 1) molecular mechanisms of antibody-dependent effector functions (e.g., CDC, ADCC, ADCP) in HIV infection, 2) high-throughput methods to profile polyclonal antibody repertoires in vaccine trials, and 3) functional characterization of IgA antibodies in mucosal immunity. His lab collaborates extensively on HIV vaccine design, leveraging structural biology and systems immunology approaches.

Awards:

• Gotz Preis from the Georg Friedrich Gotz Foundation (2010)

Advising & Collaborations:

His research integrates with the Ward Lab and other teams at Scripps Research. While no formal trainee names are listed, his work involves nonhuman primate models and clinical trial collaborations.

Labs/Teams:

Primary affiliation: Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research. Collaborations include the Institute of Medical Virology (University of Zurich) and the NIH-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network.