Education

• 1986 - 1989 Military service.
• 1989 - 1995 Study of Medicine, Charité Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin) and St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School London, United Kingdom (all clinical subjects of the 7th and 8th semesters).
• 1994 American Medical Exam (USMLE), part I and II.
• 1995 Doctor of Medicine, Charite Berlin (Humboldt University of Berlin).

Professional Career

• 1996 - 1997 Internship, Department of Internal Medicine I (ocuses: Cardiology and Pulmonology), Charité Berlin.
• 1997 - 1998 Assistant Physician, Department of Internal Medicine IV (focuses: Gastroenterology and Hepatology), Charité Berlin.
• 1998 - 1999 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Gastroenterology, University of California (Professor John Isenberg) and Sequana Therapeutics Inc. (Dr. Mark Curran), San Diego, California.
• 1999 - 2004 Assistant Physician, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Kiel, based on the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel.
• 2005 Research Fellow, Section of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology.
• 2006 - 2007 Senior Physician, Department of Internal Medicine.
• 2007 - 2013 Leading Senior Physician, Department of Internal Medicine I.
• 2012–2013 Head of the Interdisciplinary Endoscopy Unit at the Kiel Campus of the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein.
• Since 2013, Head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden.

Clinical Training

• 1996 Admission to medical practice.
• 2004 Medical Specialist in Internal Medicine.
• 2005 Board certification in Gastroenterology.
• 2006 Theoretical basis of the specialty (radiation protection of the abdominal and thoracic organs).
• 2012 Additional qualification in Diabetology (German Diabetic Society).
• 2013 Additional qualification in Internal Intensive Care.

Scientific Degrees

• 1996 Doctoral thesis defense. Subject: "Identification and characterization of the long-term stability of human hybridomas using DNA fingerprinting"
• 2005 Habilitation in Internal Medicine, Christian Albrecht University of Kiel.
• 2010 Extraordinary Professor, Christian Albrecht University of Kiel.
• 2013 Invitation to the position of W2 Professor of Gastroenterology, Technical University of Dresden.

Awards and Honors

• 1989 - 1995 Student Prize, Fellow of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the annual DAAD scholarship at the St. Mary’s Hospital
• Medical School (London, United Kingdom), and the Prize "For Medical Achievements" of the Ministry of Science of Saxony granted at the 8th German Medical Congress in Dresden.
• 2002 Ludwig Heilmeyer Silver Medal of the Society of Advances in Internal Medicine for his work on the NOD2 risk gene in Crohn's
• disease.
• 2004 Frerichs Prize of the German Society of Internal Medicine for the discovery of the first pathological gene in sarcoidosis.
• Thannhauser Prize of the German Society for Digestive and Metabolic Diseases for the identification of the gallstones.

Memberships

• German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM).
• German Society for Digestive and Metabolic Diseases (DGVS).
• European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).
• Since 2008, Member of the Commission for the Research and Support for Young Researchers of the German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM).