The company name hints to the name of a hill in Zurich dating back to the 13th century. At the turn of the last century a world-renowned immunology institute was located at the street “Schmelzbergstrasse”. It was this place of scientific excellence and critical thinking where Andreas and Lukas met and spent several years bench to bench in the laboratory.
Andreas Bergthaler studied veterinary medicine in Vienna and worked in Barcelona, Edinburgh, Tokyo, Copenhagen and Zurich during his studies. For his graduate research in immunology and infection biology he joined the Institute for Experimental Immunology led by Prof. Hans Hengartner and Nobel Laureate Prof. Rolf Zinkernagel at the University and ETH of Zurich (Zurich, CH). After a postdoctoral stay with Prof. Daniel Pinschewer at the University of Geneva (Geneva, CH), Andreas did postdoctoral research in the fields of innate immunity and systems biology together with Prof. Alan Aderem at the Institute for Systems Biology (Seattle, US).
In 2011 he established his research group at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The Bergthaler laboratory pursues an integrative approach comprising experimental disease models, patient-derived samples and cross-disciplinary approaches to dissect fundamental questions of immunology, host-pathogen interactions, inflammation, viral evolution and infectious diseases. Andreas last-authored studies in leading international journals (e.g. Nature Immunology, Immunity, Science Translational Medicine, Science Immunology, Cancer Cell) and is the recipient of prestigious grants (e.g. European Research Council (ERC), Austrian Science Fund (FWF)) as well as international scientific prizes (e.g. Löffler-Frosch-Prize of the Society of Virology, Georges-Köhler Prize of the German Society for Virology, Austrian Infection Research Prize of the Austrian Society for Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine). Andreas contributes to national efforts against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, advises the Austrian government and is active in teaching and scientific outreach. He pursues long-standing interests in translational research and entrepreneurship and co-founded several companies (e.g. Hookipa Pharma Ltd (Nasdaq:Hook) and Schmelzberg GmbH).
Lukas Flatz studied human medicine in Bern, Switzerland. In his doctoral thesis with Prof. Cottagnoud in Bern he deciphered mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. During his postgraduate training with Prof. Hengartner and Nobel Laureate Prof. Zinkernagel at the University and ETH of Zurich (Zurich, CH) he acquired hands-on knowledge in basic immunology and infection biology. He then joined the Vaccine Research Center (Director: Gary Nabel, M.D., Ph.D.) at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA) for a postdoctoral fellowship. Back in Switzerland Lukas completed his residency in dermatology at the University Hospital of Lausanne with Prof. Gilliet (Lausanne, CH). After being board certified he became senior consultant and head of the skin cancer clinic at the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen (St. Gallen, CH). Simultaneously he established his own translational research laboratory and received a Swiss National Science Foundation professorship. He completed a diploma of advanced studies in pharmaceutical medicine at the European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine (ECPM) at the University of Basel (Basel, CH). Since 2020, he is a full professor in dermato-oncology in Tübingen, Germany.
Lukas has published more than 70 publications in prestigious peer-reviewed journals including PNAS, Nature Medicine, JAMA Oncology as first or senior author. Lukas is recipient of competitive peer-reviewed grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Cancer League. He has been awarded with the Pfizer prize (2011 and 2020), Medic Prize 2013 and the Swiss Skin Cancer Award in 2014. He is co-applicant of several patents and co-founded the companies ArenaVax AG, Hookipa Pharma Ltd (Nasdaq:Hook) and Schmelzberg GmbH.