Armin Braun

Professor & Divisional Director Preclinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine

Speaker

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Armin Braun, is Division Director of the Preclinical Pharmacology and Toxicology of the Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine. His main focus is the preclinical development and evaluation of new drugs for airway and immune diseases. Both safety and efficacy testings are performed under highest quality standard including GLP. He is deputy head of the Fraunhofer GLP facility in Hannover. Partners are the major pharmaceutical and biotech companies from Europe, US and Japan. Therefore, he has extensive experience with animal models of immune mediated lung disease like asthma, COPD or lung infection. In addition, immunotoxicology is an important field of expertise and he is acting as work package lead in the IMI EU project ImSAVAR (Immune safety avatar: nonclinical mimicking of the immune system effects of immunomodulatory therapies). Based on his knowledge alternative in vitro and ex vivo models are developed. Special focus is given to human organotypic tissue culture systems e.g. using precision cut lung slice (PCLS) technique for testing lung toxicology, immune regulation and infection. In addition, tissue slices from lymph nodes, liver, heart, skin, colon and tumors are used and combined with microphysiological systems (MPS). New developments include the use of iPSC derived macrophages for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. He is active in the BMBF program „Alternativmethoden zum Tierversuch“ with the project InhalAB „Alternativmodelle zur Prüfung inhalierbarer Antibiotika” und dem Nachfolgeprojekt Inhal-Prädikt(Universell nutzbares Prädiktionsmodell für die lokale Wirksamkeit von (inhalierten) Antiinfektiva in der Lunge)