Philipp Hoppe is a Lab Head at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) in the multidisciplinary department Chemical Biology & Therapeutics. The main task of his group is the application CRISPR/Cas9 technology, usually as a genetic screening tool, to unravel novel disease intervention points or to identify the targets of drug candidates in disease models. The biological material used ranges from simple cancer cell lines, embryonic stem cell or induced pluripotent stem cell derived cells or organoids to primary cells. As a continuously evolving technology platform, the research environment is highly dynamic and collaborative, both within the same department but also with other departments, disease areas and academic institutions.

Having worked in hematopoietic stem cell research before joining NIBR, Philipp Hoppe research interests focus mainly on immunology (inflammatory and autoimmune diseases) and regenerative medicine (mostly liver and kidney). The group tries to contribute to answering general fundamental biological questions, like: Do multipotent tissue stem cells exist or do mature cells de- and re-differentiate under conditions of regeneration upon disease or injury? How do cells differentiate into certain lineages? Which molecules are involved in these processes? Ultimately, new ways of targeting those molecules shall be identified to interfere with their way of action to influence gene expression and cell fates in immune diseases and tissue regeneration. A special focus of the group´s work are transcription factors, proteins which have historically been assigned to be undruggable.

For detail and recent publications: https://www.novartis.com/our-science/postdoc-program/research-themes/pathways-biology/philipp-hoppe-phd