Paolo Brenner

Biography

As an adolescent Brenner was engaged as a cofounder of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kosmologie (DGK). He was editor and co-publisher of the Zeitschrift für Kosmologie 1990-2007. In this function he was driven by his own physical research paper (1985) titled The biography of fixed stars and by his work at Jugend forscht about black holes and published several own papers and surveys about cosmological subjects (1986).

Brenner made his high-school diploma in 1985 in Donauwörth and studied medicine from 1986 to 93 at the LMU Munich. During his medical studies he was promoted as a scholar of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. For several years he used to work as the speaker for this organization in Munich. After his medical degree in 1993 he worked as a physician in a traineeship of the Dept. of Cardiac Surgery/Klinikum Großhadern in the team of Bruno Reichart. Brenner withdrew 1996 and 1997 among the last twenty applicants for a cosmonaut trainee program in Star City (Zvyozdny gorodok) in Russia in a national (15.000 applicants) and international (150.000 applicants) final selection. Today he is a member of the Verein zur Förderung der Raumfahrt. From 1995 to 97 he worked as a scientific assistant at the Dept. of Cardiac Surgery hospital and polyclinic, Klinikum Großhadern of the LMU Munich and became admitted to leader for clinical, pharmacological studies. Brenner was promoted to doctor of medicine at the Physiological Institute of the LMU Munich with magna cum laude 1995. His dissertation covered the effect of different peptides on the sympathetic nervous system of Brown-Norway rats before and after inhibition of converting enzyme. This work was essential for the development of the medicine Ramipril. In 1997 he obtained a scholarship of the Bavarian Research Foundation (Bayerische Forschungsstiftung) for a project dealing with the development of gene technological and mechanical proceedings to realize xenogeneic transplantation of pig organs at the Institute for Surgery Research of the LMU. In the framework of this project among others he performed various xenoperfusion and transplantation test series of landrace- and transgenic pig hearts. In 1999 Brenner moved within the Dept. of Cardiac Surgery of the LMU in the team of Bruno Reichart into the Augustinum. In 2003 he concluded the specialist training for cardiac surgery. He continued to work at the xenotransplantation follow-up project dealing with the production of multi-transgenic pigs and the development of iimmunomodulatoryl strategies for the clinical xenotransplantation. In the same year he moved as a surgeon to the Klinikum Großhadern of the LMU at the same Dept. of Cardiac Surgery. In 2004 he finished his habilitation with a work on the influence of immunoadsorption on xenogenic immunosuppression mechanisms in a perfusion model and in xenotranplantation of landrace an hDAF transgenic pig hearts in primates, recorded in a work encompassing 1450 pages. In 2004 he reached “venia legendi”, was named “Privatdozent” and functional attending chief resident and in 2006 attending deputy at the Dept. of Cardiac Surgery and member of the Munich Lung Transplantation Group (ex- und implantation). In 2011 Brenner was named associate professor at the LMU and was promoted to the degree of an academic director in 2012.

Paolo Brenner was a cofounder in 1992 and still is an actual member of the foundation board (“Stiftungsrat”) of the charitable foundation Christlicher Entwicklungsdienst, together with Susanne Pechel. In this context he has worked together with Mother Teresa in Calcutta in 1997.

Scientific contribution

Since 1993 Brenner deals with topics of thoracic organ transplantation, since 2004 as a transplant surgeon of heart and lung transplantation, since 2006 as a member of the Munich Lung Transplant Group and already since 2000 as an explant surgeon of the German Organ Transplantation Foundation (Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation (DSO)). Yet 1993 he acted as a junior operator of the former Baxter Novacor Company for the wearable artificial heart system Novacor and researched at last as a proctor of JarvikHeart in cooperation with Robert Jarvik developing a new miniaturized “valve axial pump”. Supported by the Bavarian Research Foundation (Bayerische Forschungsstiftung, grant 219/96) together with his research team as a consultant of cardiac surgery he investigated the xenogeneic transplantation of multi-transgenic pig hearts as a possible future organ replacement therapy in man since 1997. Since 2004 he worked within the scope of a Transregio Research Group FOR 535 of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)) and since 2012 as a principal investigator (PI) for the sector of xenogeneic heart transplantation of the Transregio Research Collaborative Research Centre 127 (Transregio-Sonderforschungbereich SFB 127) with the speaker Bruno Reichart in the Walter-Brendel-Center of experimental medicine (WBex). Cardiac xenotransplantation (from pig to man), which was studied by Brenner and Reichart since 1997, has reached a preclinical status despite of a higher immunological complexity than allotransplantation due to preexisting and new-built antibodies against whole organs. Using a patented combination (EP 1181034 B1, EP 1980263A1, US 8,435,520 B2) consisting of transgenic organs/cells and immunoadsorption (elimination of antibodies from the recipient) and a special combination of immunosuppressive drugs hyperacute and delayed xenograft rejection should be prevented and long-term survival of a xenograft should be enabled and realized. In times of massively increasing shortage of donor organs and yet major problems with artificial hearts (cable connections, batteries, strokes and infections) this makes xenotransplantation highly interesting in the area of organ/cell transplantation. By using an almost unlimited source of porcine organs (heart, kidney, lung, cornea, (liver rather improbably) and cells (pig islet cells) against diabetes, nigrostriatal brain cells against Morbus Parkinson, stem cells, bone/-marrow, skin etc.) not only in Europe, but also worldwide many people could be helped with animal cells or with the replacement of a whole organ. In view of 45 original papers, over 110 national and international oral presentations, two highly prized international research awards and as an advising tutor of 20 postdocs and postgraduates (for example ) Brenner did pioneer work and substantially contributed to the scientific progress of the LMU, especially due to his know-how in the area of xenotransplantation and mechanical circulatory support systems. Brenner can be classified as an international expert for mechanical and “biological” heart replacement, wherefore he also owns patents (for example ). In his teaching activity since 2004 Brenner was involved in the introduction of the practical MECUM student educational program of the LMU oriented to the Harvard-University concept. Since 2007 he was the responsible organizing associate lecturer for the compartment of cardiac surgery of the LMU and since 2011 deputy speaker of the cardiovascular educational block of the new medical student education system Modul 23 of the LMU. As the leader of the cardiac surgical advanced training program he organized about 400 specialist and scientific qualification performances mostly as from the Bayerische Landesärztekammer certificated Monday education for consultant training and professional development since 2003. Novel research focuses and interests of Brenner are miniaturized artificial hearts in heart valves (in cooperation with Robert Jarvik), inhibition of aging enzymes, cryonic, energy and environment technology (e.g. e-mobility), essential oils as well as ebola.

Awards

Academic memberships

Medical associations:

Other academic associations

Editorial Boards and Reviewer

Medical journals:

Other journals:

Patents: International patens and US-patents

Publications

Political activity

The community of Neuried elected Brenner as a deputy Chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria in the local council and building- and environment committee. in 2014.