A specialist in internal medicine with a focus on hematology and oncology, Prof. Fricke most recently served as Managing Senior Physician at Chemnitz Hospital in the Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy. In 2024, he was appointed Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Dresden University of Technology. He has been part of Fraunhofer IZI in Leipzig since 2006 and has headed the Department of Cell and Gene Therapy Development there since 2019. His team researches and develops innovative cell and gene therapy technologies, transferring manufacturing processes from the experimental stage to GMP-compliant production. In doing so, Prof. Fricke combines clinical expertise with applied research to advance the development of novel immunotherapies.

In Magdeburg, he and his team will continue to focus on the development and optimization of manufacturing processes for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs). “What drives me is the question of how we can use biomedical innovations developed in-house to help patients—especially those for whom no effective treatment options currently exist,” says Prof. Fricke.

ATMPs have already been successfully implemented in the form of personalized CAR-T cell therapies, which offer new treatment avenues for patients with certain types of leukemia or lymphoma who have exhausted conventional therapies. So far, these therapies involve isolating a patient’s own T cells, genetically reprogramming them in vitro with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to recognize cancer cells carrying a specific antigen, and then reinfusing the engineered CAR-T cells into the patient’s bloodstream, where they proliferate and trigger an immune response.

Other areas of Prof. Dr. Stephan Fricke’s research at Fraunhofer IZI, and in the future at the University of Magdeburg, include developing strategies to prevent severe immune complications after cell transplants and exploring improved treatment approaches for autoimmune diseases. He explains: “Cell and gene therapies enable us to directly modulate the body’s misdirected immune system, allowing it to eliminate cancer cells or pathological immune reactions. Instead of treating only the symptoms, we can target the underlying causes of disease and create new perspectives for patients.”