Institute for Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy &
Center for Chronic Immunodeficiency
Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Hugstetter Straße 55
79106 Freiburg i. Brsg.
- +49 (0) 761/ 270 – 34800
- toni.cathomen@uniklinik-freiburg.de
- Homepage

Current position
Professor and Director, Institute for Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy,
Medical Center – University of Freiburg
Academic training
1987 – 1992 | Study of Biology (Diploma), University of Zurich, Switzerland |
Scientific qualifications
1992 – 1997 | PhD Thesis in Molecular Biology, University of Zurich, Switzerland (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Martin A. Billeter) |
Postgraduate Positions
since 2012 | Director, Institute for Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy, University of Freiburg |
2009 – 2012 | Associate Professor of Experimental Hematology, Hannover Medical School |
2003 – 2009 | Assistant Professor of Molecular Virology, Charité Medical School, Berlin |
2002 – 2003 | Senior Research Associate, The Salk Institute, San Diego, USA |
1998 – 2002 | Postdoctorate, The Salk Institute, San Diego, USA |
1997 – 1998 | Postdoctorate, University of Zurich, Switzerland |
Miscellaneous (Honors, Awards)
2021 - 2022 | President of the German Society for Gene Therapy (DG-GT e.V.) |
2015 | Emil-von-Behring Award, German Society for Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology |
1999 - 2001 | Fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation |
1998 - 1999 | Fellowship from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences |
1996 | Junior Award, Union of the Swiss Societies for Experimental Biology |
link to all publications from T. Cathomen: Pubmed
Publications based on CRC1160 funding
Rhiel M, Geiger K, Andrieux G, Rositzka J, Boerries M, Cathomen T, Cornu TI. 2023. T-CAST: An optimized CAST-Seq pipeline for TALEN confirms superior safety and efficacy of obligate-heterodimeric scaffolds. Front Genome Ed. Feb 20;5:1130736. doi: 10.3389/fgeed.2023.1130736.
Weissert, K., S. Ammann, T. Kogl, V. Dettmer-Monaco, C. Schell, T. Cathomen, S. Ehl, and P. Aichele. 2022. Adoptive T cell therapy cures mice from active hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). EMBO Mol Med: e16085. doi: 10.15252/emmm.202216085.
Konig, S., M. Fliegauf, M. Rhiel, B. Grimbacher, T. I. Cornu, T. Cathomen, and C. Mussolino. 2022. Allele-Specific Disruption of a Common STAT3 Autosomal Dominant Allele Is Not Sufficient to Restore Downstream Signaling in Patient-Derived T Cells. Genes (Basel) 13: pii: genes13101912. doi: 10.3390/genes13101912.
Bexte, T., J. Alzubi, L. M. Reindl, P. Wendel, R. Schubert, E. Salzmann-Manrique, I. von Metzler, T. Cathomen, and E. Ullrich. 2022. CRISPR-Cas9 based gene editing of the immune checkpoint NKG2A enhances NK cell mediated cytotoxicity against multiple myeloma. Oncoimmunology 11: 2081415. doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2022.2081415.
Aichele P, Neumann-Haefelin C, Ehl S, Thimme R, Cathomen T, Boerries M, Hofmann M. 2022. Immunopathology caused by impaired CD8+ T-cell responses. Eur J Immunol. Jan 31. doi: 10.1002/eji.202149528. Online ahead of print.
Turchiano G, Andrieux G, Klermund J, Blattner G, Pennucci V, El Gaz M, Monaco G, Poddar S, Mussolino C, Cornu TI, Boerries M, Cathomen T. 2021. Quantitative evaluation of chromosomal rearrangements in gene-edited human stem cells by CAST-Seq. Cell Stem Cell. 28(6):1136-1147.e5.
Dettmer, V., K. Bloom, M. Gross, K. Weissert, Aichele, S. Ehl, and T. Cathomen. 2019. Retroviral UNC13D gene transfer restores cytotoxic activity of T cells derived from familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis type 3 patients in vitro. Hum Gene Ther. 30(8): 975-984.
Simone A. Haas, Viviane Dettmer, Toni Cathomen, Hämostaseologie 2017;37: 45–52
Mussolino C, Alzubi J, Pennucci V, Turchiano G, Cathomen T. 2017. Genome and Epigenome Editing to Treat Disorders of the Hematopoietic System. Hum Gene Ther. 28(11):1105-1115.
Dettmer V, Cathomen T, and Hildenbeutel M. 2017. Genom-Editierung – neue Wege im klinischen Alltag (Review). BIOspektrum 23, 155-8.
Cornu TI, Mussolino C, Cathomen T. 2017. Refining strategies to translate genome editing to the clinic. Nat Med. 23(4):415-423. Review.
Mussolino C, Mlambo T, Cathomen T. 2015. Proven and novel strategies for efficient editing of the human genome. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 24:105-12.