Burkhard Becher

Research Statement

AI generated · 3d ago

Burkhard Becher's research centers on how immune cells drive and restrain inflammation in the central nervous system. His most-cited senior-author work includes the inflammatory mechanisms underlying Alzheimer disease, reviewed in 2015 and cited over 2,000 times, and RORγt-driven GM-CSF production by helper T cells as a requirement for the effector phase of autoimmune neuroinflammation, which linked a specific cytokine axis to disease progression. Earlier, he showed that dendritic cells permit immune invasion of the CNS in an animal model of multiple sclerosis, and more recently his group used high-dimensional single-cell analysis to predict response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. Beyond these lead-author papers, Becher contributed as a middle author to human TH17 lymphocytes promoting blood-brain barrier disruption and CNS inflammation, an early bridge between T-cell biology and barrier dysfunction, and to NASH limiting anti-tumour surveillance in immunotherapy-treated HCC. His single-cell work on tumor-specific instruction of tissue-invading leukocytes in human brain cancer connects this clinical thread to his neuroimmunology roots. No software, datasets, patents, or grants are indexed beyond his publications. Across these outputs, the through-line is a shift from cytokine-level mechanisms of neuroinflammation toward single-cell, patient-facing immune profiling.

Most Cited Works

Immune attack: the role of inflammation in Alzheimer disease

Frank L Heppner, Richard M Ransohoff, Burkhard Becher

Nature reviews. Neuroscience2015

2,131Citations

Human TH17 lymphocytes promote blood-brain barrier disruption and central nervous system inflammation

Hania Kebir, Katharina Kreymborg, Igal Ifergan, Aurore Dodelet-Devillers, Romain Cayrol, Monique Bernard, Fabrizio Giuliani, Nathalie Arbour, Burkhard Becher, Alexandre Prat

Nature Medicine2007

Research Areas

T-cell and B-cell ImmunologyMultiple Sclerosis Research StudiesCancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Immunotherapy and Immune Responses

Affiliations & Education

Education

1994–1998
McGill University(CA)
PhD (UCologne)
1990–1994
University of Cologne(DE)
MSc · Genetics

Employment

2015–present· now
University of Zurich(CH)
Professor · Institute of experimental Immunolohy

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