Prof. Dr. Andreas Pichlmair

Andreas Pichlmair specializes in virus–host interactions and their impact on viral pathogenicity. His research combines multi-omics approaches with hypothesis-driven experimentation.

Following his veterinary studies in Vienna, Austria, he earned his DVM degree at the University of Freiburg, Germany, where he investigated antiviral immunity to orthomyxoviruses. During his PhD at the Francis Crick Institute (formerly the London Research Institute), he discovered that RIG-I functions as a sensor for viral triphosphorylated RNA.

As a postdoctoral researcher at CeMM in Vienna, he explored viral RNA–host protein interactions and identified the IFIT complex as a virus-inhibiting multiprotein system. Using mass spectrometry, he further revealed viral mechanisms that interfere with host signaling cascades and showed that immunomodulators from evolutionarily distant viruses converge on a conserved subset of host interaction networks.

Since 2011, he has led his own research group, initially as a Max Planck Fellow and later as Professor at the Technical University of Munich. His lab discovered oxeiptosis, a ROS-induced cell death pathway that limits influenza A virus pathology and contributes to the understanding of comorbidities such as cancer. Through large-scale interactome analyses of ZIKA, SARS-CoV-2, and VZV, his team identified key viral restriction and host factors. Several of these findings provided insights into clinically relevant patient mutations and inspired novel therapeutic strategies against emerging viruses.

In addition to his laboratory, Andreas Pichlmair heads the Mass Spectrometry Core Facility at the TUM University Hospital. He has authored more than 100 scientific publications and received competitive funding from DFG, BMBF, EMBO, and the ERC.