Prof. Dr. Hanns U. Zeilhofer

Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer has been Full Professor for Pharmacology at the ETH Zurich since January 1st, 2006 (dual-professorship, University of Zurich).

Hanns Ulrich Zeilhofer was born in 1963 in Erlangen (Germany). He studied Medicine and Physics at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, before he received postdoctoral training in electrophysiology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen (Prof. Erwin Neher and Dieter Swandulla) and in Molecular Biology at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich (Prof. Hanns Möhler). He made his MD thesis at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Prof. Kay Brune). From 2001 to 2005 he was associate professor of Molecular Neuropharmacology at the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. In September 2005 he joined the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, as full professor of Pharmacology.

Current research projects focus on the neurobiological basis of pain. His group studies plastic changes in neuronal communication underlying pathological pain syndromes. These studies employ electrophysiological and optical techniques in slices of the spinal cord, molecular biology techniques as well as the behavioral testing of genetically modified animals. The research aims at the identification of novel pharmacological strategies for the treatment of pain.