Rainer Blasczyk is Full Professor of Transfusion Medicine and Head of the Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering at Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hanover, Germany since 1998 as well as board member of the Transplantation Center at Hannover Medical School since 2019. He graduated in medicine from the Universities Bochum and Essen before completing postgraduate training at the Universities of Marburg, Essen, Duesseldorf and Berlin, where he started to work on Molecular Immunogenetics in 1993. After being appointed to his current position he initiated the research on transplant engineering.

Professor Blasczyk has a long term research interest in solid organ transplantation and transplantation immunology with a main focus on transplant tolerance and transplant engineering. His work centers around the alloimmune response in organ transplantation and therapeutic interventions to combat rejection and infection. This includes cellular and humoral immunotherapy as well as genetic and transplant engineering approaches to achieve transplantation tolerance.

Professor Blasczyk is founder and chairman of the Immunotherapy Foundation. He has been a member of the Advisory Board on Blood Products of the German Ministry of Health, President of the German Society of Immunogenetics (DGI) and the German Society of Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology (DGTI) as well as a Board Member of the European Society of Immunogenetics (EFI). 

Education and Professional Activities

• 1981 - 1987

  Medical School, Universities of Bochum and Essen, Germany

• 1987 - 1988

  Research fellow and postgraduate training in Surgery, Dept. of Visceral Surgery, University of Marburg, Germany

• 1989 - 1991

  Research fellow and postgraduate training in Immunology, Institute of Immunology, University of Essen, Germany

• 1992 - 1993

  Research fellow and postgraduate training in Hematology and Oncology, Dept. of Hematology and Oncology, University of Düsseldorf

• 1993 - 1998

  Research group leader on Molecular Immunogenetics and postgraduate training in Transfusion Medicine, Institute of Transfusion Medicine, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Germany

• 1996

  Board Certification, Transfusion Medicine

• 1997

  Habilitation in Transfusion Medicine, Member of the Faculty and Senior Lecturer, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Germany

• Since 1998

  Full Professor of Transfusion Medicine and head of the Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

Additional Activities

• 2001

  Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, Imusyn Ltd. (Biotech)

• 2005

  Founder and chairman, Foundation of Immunotherapy

• Since 2006

  Editorial Board, HLA (formerly known as Tissue Antigens; Wiley)

• 2006 – 2008

  President, German Society for Immunogenetics (DGI)

• 2007 – 2010

  Executive Board, European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI)

• 2007 – 2014

  Scientific Advisory Board, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Germany

• 2009 – 2019

  Scientific Advisory Board, European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI)

• Since 2011

  Editorial Board, Transfusionsmedizin (Thieme)

• 2012 – 2014

  President, German Society for Immunogenetics (DGI)

• 2014 – 2018

  Management Board, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx), Hannover Medical School, Germany

• 2015 – 2016

  President, German Society for Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology (DGTI)

• 2016 – 2019

  Advisory board on blood products, German Ministry of Health

• Since 2018

  Chairman of the Management Board, Research Network Invisible Organs

• Since 2019

  Management Board, Transplantation Center at Hannover Medical School

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His research aims to prevent transplant rejection by genetic allograft engineering. Professor Blasczyk is considered a pioneer in transplant engineering and highly specialized in the field of histocompatibility and immunogenetics. He is particularly interested in the genetic structure, molecular function and regulation of histocompatibility systems in order to identify therapeutic targets for graft engineering to substantially improve clinical outcome of transplantation. Professor Blasczyk has initiated the Research Network on Invisible Organs, a pioneering project on transplant engineering to combat organ rejection.

Research Fields

• Transplant Engineering
• Transplant Immunology
• Genetic Engineering

PubMed Rainer Blasczyk Publication list (PubMed-Link)

PubFacts Rainer Blasczyk Publication list (PubFacts-Link)