Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Stefan Hugo Ernst Kaufmann
Senior Fellow, April to September 2027
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin
- Founding Director Emeritus, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin; Senior Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen.
- Former President and Honorary Member of the German Society for Immunology; former President of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) and of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS); Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Council of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings; Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
- Recipient of numerous prestigious scientific awards, e.g. Alfried Krupp Förderpreis 1987; author of more than 1,000 scientific publications with over 120,000 citations and an H-index > 160, placing him among the top 0.01% most-cited scientists worldwide across 22 major scientific disciplines.
Fellow project: Harnessing Immunity for Rational Tuberculosis Vaccine Design: Protection against Tuberculosis and Beyond
Building on fundamental discoveries in immunology and tuberculosis (TB) research, a second-generation TB vaccine candidate, VPM1002, has been developed from bench to bedside and has advanced to phase III clinical evaluation (Kaufmann SHE, Front. Immunol. 14:1273938, 2023).
A pivotal phase III trial (PreVenTB) conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research enrolled a broad and diverse population, including males and females older than six years without an upper age limit, individuals with or without latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, and participants with stable chronic conditions and recognized TB risk factors. These included diabetes, smoking, alcohol use, and undernutrition. Consequently, the PreVenTB study closely reflects a real-world household-contact setting (Singh M. et al. BMJ 2026;393:e085716).
The primary analysis did not demonstrate protective efficacy against all forms of TB across all age groups. However, per-protocol analyses revealed that VPM1002 significantly reduced extrapulmonary TB . Furthermore, post-hoc analyses suggested substantial protection in children and young adolescents aged 6 – <14 years against both pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB. Similarly, among participants who were uninfected at baseline but became infected within six months after vaccination, VPM1002 showed marked protection against all forms of TB, with even greater efficacy against extrapulmonary disease.
Future studies will focus on elucidating the immune mechanisms associated with protection against pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB, particularly in young adolescents and newly infected individuals. Beyond TB prevention, VPM1002 has also shown promise as an immunotherapeutic agent for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Ongoing studies will therefore seek to decipher immunological mechanisms underlying its therapeutic activity and to identify shared and distinct pathways of protective and therapeutic immunity.