Christian Haass, Ph.D.

Chair Metabolic Biochemistry, Ludwig-Maximilans-Universität, Munich; Speaker, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Munich; Speaker of the DFG excellence cluster Systems Neurology


Dr. Haass graduated in Molecular Biology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He was a postdoc and assistant professor of Neurology at the Harvard Medical School in the institute of Dr. Dennis Selkoe. Since 1999 he is the head of the division of Biochemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians University and since 2009 he is also the speaker of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Munich. Dr. Haass received a number of prestigious awards, among them, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Award of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Potamkin Award of the American Academy of Neurology, the Sheik Hamdan Award for Medical Sciences and most recently the ERC advanced grant.

To learn more about the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, visit www.dzne.de.

Twitter: @Haass_Lab

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Parhizkar, S., Arzberger, T., Brendel, M., Kleinberger, G., Deussing, M., Focke, C., Nuscher, B., Xiong, M., Ghasemigharagoz, A., Katzmarski, N., Krasemann, S., Lichtenthaler, S. F., Müller, S. A., Colombo, A., Monasor, L. S., Tahirovic, S., Herms, J., Willem, M., Pettkus, N., Butovsky, O., Bartenstein, P., Edbauer, D., Rominger, A., Erturk, A., Grathwohl, S. A., Neher, J. J., Holtzman, D., Meyer-Leuhmann, M., & Haass, C. Loss of TREM2 function increases amyloid seeding but reduces plaque-associated ApoE, Nature Neuroscience, February 1, 2019, Read More

McDade, E., Voytyuk, I., Aisen, P., Bateman, R. J., Carrillo, M. C., De Strooper, B., Haass, C., Reiman, E. M., Sperling, R., Tariot, P. N., Yan, R., Masters, C. L., Vassar, R., & Lichtenthaler, S. F. The case for low-level BACE1 inhibition for the prevention of Alzheimer disease, Nature Reviews Neurology, September 21, 2021, Read More

Krasemann, S., Madore, C., Cialic, R., Baufeld, C., ... Ulrich, J. D., … Lemere, C., Ikezu, T., ... Holtzman, D. M. … Haass, C., Butovsky, O. The TREM2-APOE Pathway drives the transcriptional phenotype of dysfunctional microglia in Neurodegenerative Diseases, Immunity, September 19, 2017, Read More

Mazaheri, F., Snaidero, N., Kleinberger, G., Madore, C., Daria, A., Werner, G., Krasemann, S., Capell, A., Trümbach, D., Wurst, W., Brunner, B., Bultmann, S., Tahirovic, S., Kerschensteiner, M., Misgeld, T., Butovsky, O., & Haass, C. TREM2 deficiency impairs chemotaxis and microglial responses to neuronal injury, EMBO Reports, May 8, 2017, Read More

Vöglein, J., Paumier, K., Jucker, M., Preische, O., McDade, E., Hassenstab, J., Benzinger, T. L., Noble, J. M., Berman, S. B., Graff-Radford, N. R., Ghetti, B., Farlow, M. R., Chhatwal, J., Salloway, S., Xiong, C., Karch, C. M., Cairns, N., Mori, H., Schofield, P. R., Masters, C. L., … Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Clinical, pathophysiological and genetic features of motor symptoms in autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease, Brain, March 20, 2019, Read More

Schlepckow, K., Kleinberger, G., Fukumori, A., Feederle, R., Lichtenthaler, S. F., Steiner, H., & Haass, C. An Alzheimer-associated TREM2 variant occurs at the ADAM cleavage site and affects shedding and phagocytic function., EMBO Molecular Medicine, August 30, 2017, Read More

Ewers, M., Franzmeier, N., Suárez-Calvet, M., Morenas-Rodriguez, E., Caballero, M. A. A., Kleinberger, G., Piccio, L., Cruchaga, C., Deming, Y., Dichgans, M., Trojanowski, J. Q., Shaw, L. M., Weiner, M. W., Haass, C., & Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative Increased soluble TREM2 in cerebospinal fluid is associated with reduced cognitvie and clinical decline, Science Translational Medicine, August 28, 2019, Read More

Suárez-Calvet, M., Kleinberger, G., Araque Caballero, M. Á., Brendel, M., Rominger, A., Alcolea, D., Fortea, J., Lleó, A., Blesa, R., Gispert, J. D., Sánchez-Valle, R., Antonell, A., Rami, L., Molinuevo, J. L., Brosseron, F., Traschütz, A., Heneka, M. T., Struyfs, H., Engelborghs, S., Sleegers, K., Van Broeckhove, C., Zetterberg, H., Nellgard, B., Blennow, K., Crispin, A., Ewers, M., & Haass, C. sTREM2 cerebrospinal fluid levels are a potential biomarker for microglia activity in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and associate with neuronal injury markers, EMBO Molecular Medicine, March 3, 2016, Read More

Suárez-Calvet, M., Araque Caballero, M. Á., Kleinberger, G., Bateman, R. J., Fagan, A. M., Morris, J. C., Levin, J., Danek, A., Ewers, M., & Haass, C. Early changes in CSF sTREM2 in dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease occur after amyloid deposition and neuronal injury, Science Translational Medicine, December 14, 2016, Read More

Eninger, T., Müller, S. A., Bacioglu, M., Schweighauser, M., Lambert, M., Maia, L. F., Neher, J. J., Hornfeck, S. M., Obermüller, U., Kleinberger, G., Haass, C., Kahle, P. J., Staufenbiel, M., Ping, L., Duong, D. M., Levey, A. I., Seyfried, N. T., Lichtenthaler, S. F., Jucker, M., & Kaeser, S. A. Signatures of glial activity can be detected in the CSF proteome, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, June 6, 2022, Read More

Götzl, J. K., Brendel, M., Werner, G., Parhizkar, S., Sebastian Monasor, L., Kleinberger, G., Colombo, A. V., Deussing, M., Wagner, M., Winkelmann, J., Diehl-Schmid, J., Levin, J., Fellerer, K., Reifschneider, A., Bultmann, S., Bartenstein, P., Rominger, A., Tahirovic, S., Smith, S. T., Madore, C., Butovsky, O., Capell, A., & Haass, C. Opposite microglial activations stages upon loss of PGRN or TREM2 result in reduced cerebral glucose metabolism, EMBO Molecular Medicine, June 1, 2019, Read More

Ben Halima, S., Mishra, S., Raja, K. M. P., Willem, M., Baici, A., Simons, K., Brüstle, O., Koch, P., Haass, C., Caflisch, A., & Rajendran, L. Specific Inhibition of beta-Secretase Processing of the Alzheimer Disease Amyloid Precursor Protein, Cell Reports, February 25, 2016, Read More

Falcon, C., Monté-Rubio, G. C., Grau-Rivera, O., Suárez-Calvet, M., Sánchez-Valle, R., Rami, L., Bosch, B., Haass, C., Gispert, J. D., & Molinuevo, J. L. CSF glial biomarkers YKL40 and sTREM2 are associated with longitudinal volume and diffusivity changes in cognitively unimpaired individuals, NeuroImage: Clinical, April 1, 2019, Read More

Sacher, C., Blume, T., Beyer, L., Biechele, G., Sauerbeck, J., Eckenweber, F., Deussing, M., Focke, C., Parhizkar, S., Lindner, S., Gildehaus, F. J., von Ungern-Sternberg, B., Baumann, K., Tahirovic, S., Kleinberger, G., Willem, M., Haass, C., Bartenstein, P., Cumming, P., Rominger, A., Herms, J., & Brendel, M. Asymmetry of fibrillar plaque burden in amyloid mouse models, Journal of Nuclear Medicine, May 15, 2020, Read More

Xiang, X., Werner, G., Bohrmann, B., Liesz, A., Mazaheri, F., Capell, A., Feederle, R., Knuesel, I., Kleinberger, G., & Haass, C. TREM2 deficiency reduces the efficacy of immunotherapeutic amyloid clearance, EMBO Molecular Medicine, July 8, 2016, Read More

Kleinberger, G., Brendel, M., Mracsko, E., Wefers, B., Groeneweg, L., Xiang, X., Focke, C., Deußing, M., Suárez-Calvet, M., Mazaheri, F., Parhizkar, S., Pettkus, N., Wurst, W., Feederle, R., Bartenstein, P., Mueggler, T., Arzberger, T., Knuesel, I., Rominger, A., & Haass, C. The FTD-like syndrome causing TREM2 T66M mutation impairs microglia function, brain perfusion, and glucose metabolism, EMBO Journal, May 30, 2017, Read More

Gispert, J. D., Suárez-Calvet, M., Monté, G. C., Tucholka, A., Falcon, C., Rojas, S., Rami, L., Sánchez-Valle, R., Lladó, A., Kleinberger, G., Haass, C., & Molinuevo, J. L. Cerebrospinal fluid sTREM2 levels are associated with gray matter volume increases and reduced diffusivity in early Alzheimer’s disease., Alzheimer's & Dementia, July 13, 2016, Read More

Hyman, B. T., Growdon, J. H., Albers, M. W., Buckner, R. L., Chhatwal, J., Gomez-Isla, M. T., Haass, C., Hudry, E., Jack, C. R., Jr, Johnson, K. A., Khachaturian, Z. S., Kim, D. Y., Martin, J. B., Nitsch, R. M., Rosen, B. R., Selkoe, D. J., Sperling, R. A., St George-Hyslop, P., Tanzi, R. E., Yap, L., Young, A. B., Phelps, C. H., & McCaffrey, P.M. Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center: Progress and Challenges, Alzheimer's & Dementia, October 1, 2015, Read More

Paolicelli, R. C., Sierra, A., Stevens, B., et al. Microglia states and nomenclature: A field at its crossroads, Neuron, November 2, 2022, Read More