Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner

Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner received her PhD in 1994 at the University of Zurich and Emory University, Atlanta and her Habilitation 2006 at Hannover Medical School (MHH). In 2008 she became professor for Molecular Cardiology at the MHH. From 2013-2019 she was dean of research of the MHH. Since 2021 she is dean of the medical faculty of the Philipps University Marburg and leads the institute of cardiovascular complications in pregnancy and in oncologic therapies, at the Philipps-Universität Marburg.

She has a longstanding experience in analyzing signaling pathways in cardiac cells relevant for cardiac physiological and pathophysiological processes as well as for endogenous regeneration abilities of the heart especially after pregnancy or treatment with cardio toxic agents. She published over 200 articles in top-ranked journals, i.e. Cell, Nature, JCI, EHJ, EMBO, Circulation and many others. Her metrics are: h-index: 69, RG score 46.95 citations: 17050 citations, reads: 51270.

She was involved in several research consortia of the DFG and was a core PI of the REBIRTH Excellence Cluster at the MHH. In addition, she was lead scientist and organizer of the multicenter clinical trial on the efficacy of Bromocriptin in PPCM funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). She is member of the transatlantic network of excellence on “targeted approaches for prevention and treatment anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity”.

She obtained many prestigious prices (among others the outstanding achievement award of the ESC and the science award of the state of lower Saxony). She was dean of research of the MHH (2013-2020) and is the dean of the medical faculty of the Philipps University of Marburg. She is fellow of the ESC, member of the German Cardiology Program Committee and board member of the Technion society and was secretary of the International Society of Heart Research (ISHR). In her role as dean of research at the MHH she was in the board of the Hannover Unified Biobank HUB. She is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Charité Berlin and one of 25 members of the German Council of Science and Humanities.