Heimo Breiteneder PhD

Heimo Breiteneder is a Professor of Medical Biotechnology at the Medical University of Vienna and Head of the Division of Medical Biotechnology at the Department of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research at the Medical University of Vienna.

He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Vienna, Austria. Prof. Breiteneder is also the Chair of the WHO/IUIS Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee. His early efforts to obtain the coding sequences of tree pollen and cross-reactive plant food allergens eventually lead to a well-accepted classification system of allergens based on protein family membership that he developed together with his colleague C. Radauer.

Prof. Breiteneder is author or co-author on numerous publications on pollen, plant and animal food allergens. Within these protein families as a frame of reference, he now studies allergens and related non-allergenic proteins for their immunologic and biologic properties. Of current particular interest to H. Breiteneder and his team is the interaction of allergens with the innate immune system and how they induce dendritic or epithelial cells to polarize the T helper cell response.