Prof. Dr. Ali Önder Yildirim
Director Institute of Lung Health and Immunity (LHI)“Keeping the lung healthy is important for the overall well-being of us humans. Especially COVID-19 has made us realize how vital a healthy lung is for survival. We therefore want to turn diseased lungs into lungs that are healthy again.”
“Keeping the lung healthy is important for the overall well-being of us humans. Especially COVID-19 has made us realize how vital a healthy lung is for survival. We therefore want to turn diseased lungs into lungs that are healthy again.”
Academic career and research areas
Ali Önder Yildirim wants to understand the immune mechanisms at the interface between environment and chronic lung diseases. His core strength is to decipher the underlying molecular mechanisms of chronic lung disease and the contribution of the immune system to these processes.
He has a doctor title in Veterinary Medicine (Justus Liebig University, Gießen) and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Internal Medicine in the clinical research group “chronic airway diseases” at Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany. In 2006 he started at Helmholtz Munich as Group Leader “Immunopathology of COPD” at the Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC)/Institute of Lung Biology and Disease (ILBD).
Today, Ali Önder Yildirim is director of the LHI, Institute of Lung Health and Immunity/Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC) at Helmholtz Munich. There, he also is member of the Ececutive Committee of the Department Environmental Health and manages the platform Helmholtz Immunology, together with Carolin Daniel.
Skills
Immunology Chronic Lung Diseases Immunopathology Platform Imaging COPD DPLD ELD
Professional Background
Group Leader “Immunopathology of COPD”, Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC), Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, Institute of Lung Biology and Disease; Munich, Germany
Editorial Board member of Frontier Immunology
Member of ATS, Assembly on Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology (RCMB) organization committee
Director of Institute for Lung Biology and Disease (ILBD), Comprehensive Pneumology Center (CPC), Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, Munich, Germany
Publications
2023 European Respiratory Journal
Oxysterol metabolism dictates macrophage influx during SARS-CoV-2 infection
2022 Nature Communications
2022 Nature Communications
Lung emphysema and impaired macrophage elastase clearance in mucolipin 3 deficient mice