Sebastian Suerbaum

Sebastian Suerbaum is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Director of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Epidemiology at the Max von Pettenkofer Institute, LMU Munich, Germany. He has held leading academic roles since 1999, including Director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene at Hannover Medical School (2003-2016) and Deputy Chairman at the Institute of Hygiene and Microbiology, Julius Maximilians-University Würzburg (1999-2003).

• Education: Studied medicine and philosophy at Ruhr-University Bochum; received Dr. med. (1988) with a thesis on antibiotic effects on E. coli immunity.

Research interests focus on Helicobacter pylori genetics, its adaptation to human hosts, and the interplay between intestinal microbiota and disease. He has pioneered studies on DNA horizontal exchange, free recombination, and ethnic/geographic differentiation of H. pylori, linking these to human migration patterns. His work also explores H. hepaticus in infection and cancer, as well as the physiology of intestinal microbiota.

Scientific honors include election to the American Academy of Microbiology (2014) and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2011), alongside awards like the Heinz P.R. Seeliger-Award (2012) and the Gerhard-Hess-Award from the German Research Foundation (DFG, 1996).