Research / 05.07.2024
Holger Gerhardt new member of the DZHK Board of Directors

Professor Holger Gerhardt from the DZHK partner site Berlin was newly elected to the Board of Directors by the General Assembly: He will take office on 1 July 2024.

Holger Gerhardt succeeds Thomas Sommer and represents the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (Max Delbrück Center) on the DZHK Board of Directors. Together with Stefanie Dimmeler (Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt), chairwoman, and Steffen Massberg (Klinikum der Universität München) as member of the board, Holger Gerhardt will remain on the three-member board until the end of 2026. The statutes of the Deutschen Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung (DZHK) stipulate that the Max Delbrück Center and a university or university hospital must be represented on the board. The Max Delbrück Centre is a founding member of the DZHK.

Holger Gerhardt has held a DZHK professorship for Experimental Cardiovascular Research at the Charité in Berlin since 2014 and heads the "Integrative Vascular Biology" working group at the Max Delbrück Centre in Berlin-Buch. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Max Delbrück Center. At the DZHK, the 55-year-old was most recently the spokesperson for the Berlin partner site.

"The DZHK is a globally unique interdisciplinary research network with the task of jointly tackling the growing challenges in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. In addition to my research, it is a great pleasure to support the strategic development of the DZHK as a member of the Executive Board.

The biologist investigates how blood vessels form during the development of organisms and looks for ways to stop pathological vessel growth. The aim of his research is to gain a better understanding of blood vessel formation and its dysfunction in diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases and tumours.

The DZHK board is looking forward to working with Holger Gerhardt and would like to thank Thomas Sommer for his excellent and longstanding cooperation. Sommer, an expert in cellular biochemistry, served as Acting Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center from 2014 to 2022, with a three-year break.

Further information

• Profile of Holger Gerhardt: When new blood vessels sprout
• Holger Gerhardt's lab at the Max Delbrück Center
• Holger Gerhardt at the DZHK