معرفی
Oliver Harschnitz is a Research Group Leader at Human Technopole's Centre for Neurogenomics. His research focuses on developing human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) models to study viral and autoimmune encephalitis, with a goal of identifying therapeutic targets for neuroimmunological diseases. He holds a medical degree from the University of Maastricht (2009) and a PhD from Utrecht University Medical Center (2017), where he studied inflammatory neuropathies. His postdoctoral work at Sloan Kettering Institute (2017–2021) explored host-virus interactions in the CNS using hPSC models.
Research Interests: Oliver’s work integrates stem cell biology, virology, and immunology to model neuroinflammatory diseases. Key areas include HSV-1 encephalitis mechanisms, TLR3-mediated immunity, and the development of organoid models to study CNS infections. His lab employs high-throughput screens and single-cell analyses to uncover disease drivers.
- Awards: Warren Alpert Fellowship (2021), NYSTEM Award (2020), NARSAD Young Investigator (2020), and multiple presentation awards (2014–2018).
- Advising: Mentors PhD students Eleonora Conti, Greta Galeotti, Nicola Palazzi, and Ana Laura Silva Duarte. Supervises postdoctoral researchers including Elisa Colombo and Stefania Giussani.
- Labs/Teams: The Harschnitz Group is multidisciplinary, combining neuroscientists, stem cell biologists, and computational researchers to advance disease modeling.
