Professor Axel Haverich completed his medical training at the MHH and was appointed head of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Kiel in 1993. Since 1996, he has been the head of the Department of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery at MHH. In 1995, he won the prestigious Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation (DFG). With this award, he founded the Leibniz Research Laboratories for Biotechnology and Artificial Organs. There, the foundation was laid for many scientific achievements including bioengineered heart valves that grow with the patient and a bioengineered vascular graft for coronary reconstruction based on an autologous fibrin matrix. His company “CorLife” has provided >250 decellularized heart valves to children and adolescents. Here, two clinical trials have been funded by EU grants. He has been granted several patents in the field of tissue engineering, such as for a biological vascularized autologous matrix which can replacedamaged myocardium. Prof. Haverich served as the coordinator of the Excellence Cluster “From Regenerative Biology to Reconstructive Therapy” from 2006 to 2018. In addition to being the Chairman of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery from 2007-2009, he was the president of the German Society of Surgery from 2010 to 2011. He has published over 1000 peer-reviewed papers and has contributed to numerous books.Dr. Erin Colleen Boyle received her Bachelor of Science (Specialized Honors, Microbiology) from the University of Guelph and her PhD from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia. She was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2010. In 2015, Dr. Boyle joined the Department of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery at Hannover Medical School (MHH). She has published numerous primary research and review papers in high-level peer-reviewed journals on the topics of bacterial pathogenesis and atherosclerosis.
