Britta Eiz-Vesper studied biology at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Greifswald and received her doctorate in human pathogenic adenoviruses at the Hannover Medical School.
Immediately after her doctorate, Mrs. Eiz-Vesper worked in the research and development department of the DRK NSTOB Springe on stem cell, biological, and genetic engineering issues. Her work was supported by a research grant from the Dr. Wilhelm-Kempe-Foundation at the Chicago Children-Hospital with Dr. Moldwin. Since 1999, Mrs. Eiz-Vesper has been working in the field of cellular immunotherapy with natural and genetically modified antigen-specific T cells at Hannover Medical School’s Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering. In 2009, Mrs. Eiz-Vesper was appointed W2 professor.
Mrs. Eiz-Vesper has developed and established extensive procedures for donor identification, quality criteria of cellular Immunotherapeutic generation of cellular products and, immunomonitoring of patients before and after stem cell and organ transplantation for the production of antigen-specific T cells.
Her work significantly contributed to the fact that the Hannover Medical School’s Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering was granted the manufacturing permit for mono- and multi-antigenspecific T cells in 2014. In 2013, Mrs. Eiz-Vesper, together with Mrs. Britta Maecker-Kolhoff, established the world's first register of healthy donors for virus-specific T cells (www.alloCELL.org). To date, more than 160 T-cell preparations have been produced and used. More than 75% of the preparations come from related or unrelated third party donors.
Mrs. Eiz-Vesper is an expert in persion according to § 15 AMG. Since 2017, she has been a board member of the International Society of Cell Therapy (ISCT), co-editor of the journal Transfusion Medicine and Hemotherapy, and expert for national and international foundations. Furthermore, Mrs. Eiz-Vesper is a member of the commission AWMF (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Wissenschaftlichen Medizinischen Fachgesellschaften e.V.) for the development of the guideline register number 093-002 "Viral infections in organ and allogeneic stem cell transplant patients: diagnostics, prevention and therapy" (as of 31.05.2019, valid until 31.05.2023).
Britta Maecker-Kolhoff is a pediatric hematologist, oncologist, and an attending physician at the pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation program at Hannover Medical School, Germany. She is the chair of the German study group for lymphoproliferative diseases after transplantation in children (Ped-PTLD).
Britta Maecker-Kolhoff studied Medicine at the Georg-August University of Göttingen. She received her clinical training at the LMU in Munich and at Hannover Medical School and holds board certifications in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology and Oncology.
Having completed her doctoral thesis on detection of leukemia-associated T-cell receptor rearrangements in stem cell compartments, she embarked on her study of tumor immunology and immunotherapy during a 4-year postdoctoral research rotation with Joachim L. Schultze and Lee M. Nadler at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. The stay resulted in the discovery of a novel immunogenic tumor antigen and several publications on antigen-specific T cells in cancer patients.
Upon her return to Germany, she focused her research on viral complications after stem cell and solid organ transplantation with a particular interest in lymphoproliferative diseases (PTLD). She conducted a phase II clinical trial on the treatment of PTLD in children and is currently interested in bringing EBV-specific T-cell treatments into the routine management of patients with EBV-associated PTLD and tumors after solid organ transplantation. Her second focus lies on the understanding and improvement of antiviral T-cell therapy in stem cell transplant recipients.
Britta Maecker-Kolhoff is a member of several professional organizations (e.g. EBMT; SIOP Europe; GPOH). She is a member of the transplant cohort steering committee at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). She has served as a reviewer for several peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as funding institutions. She is also a member of the AWMF commission (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Wissenschaftlichen Medizinischen Fachgesellschaften e.V.) for the development of the guideline register number 093-002 "Viral infections in organ and allogeneic stem cell transplant patients: diagnostics, prevention and therapy" (as of 31.05.2019, valid until 31.05.2023) as well of the IPTA (International Pediatric Transplant Association) working group for pediatric PTLD.