Susanne Wolbank’s academic career began in 1989 at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, where she completed her Master’s degree in Food and Biotechnology. After her Master’s degree, she started her PhD at the Institute of Applied Microbiology at the same university. Her PhD thesis, entitled “Characterisation of class-switching polyclonal anti-HIV-1 antibodies 2F5 and 2G12”, led her into the fields of immunology and virology. After a research stay at the John Hopkins Institute of Public Health in Baltimore, USA, and her post-doc at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden on in vitro and in vivo characterisation of human embryonic stem cells, she is now head of the Department of Cell-Based Therapies at LBI Trauma since 2008.

Susanne’s research interests focus on human stem cells and their derivatives for therapeutic application in regenerative medicine, with particular emphasis on mesenchymal stem cells derived from human waste materials. The use of stem cells from clinical ‘waste’ accordingly offers great potential: areas of application include non-healing bone fractures, arthrosis or even circulatory disorders and non-healing wounds.

In the past, Susanne has actively contributed to numerous national and international research projects, such as the EU initiatives Hippocrates, Expertissues and Angioscaff.  She has also been involved in academic teaching and committees such as the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS).