Senior Fellow

Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute
Cleveland, Ohio  USA

Dr. Fensterl’s research is focused on investigating cellular functions of the ISG56/Ifit1 family of genes. In mammals, these genes are strongly induced after exposure to interferons or viruses, and antiviral functions of their protein products begin to be uncovered.  Dr. Fensterl is using various ISG56 family gene knock-out mice to identify novel antiviral activities of the family member ISG54 and he has discovered that, although ubiquitously inducible in the mouse, an interferon-induced gene may exert its antiviral function in an organ-specific manner.

Dr. Fensterl graduated in virology/microbiology at the Institute of Virology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany in 2002.He continued his work in the field of innate immunity in the lab of Prof. Dr. Angelika Vallbracht by examining how hepatitis A virus suppresses the induction of interferons, and received his doctoral degree in the natural sciences (Doctor rerum naturalium) from University of Bremen in 2006.In 2006, Dr. Fensterl took up his current postdoctoral fellow position at Lerner Research Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, USA in the lab of Dr. Ganes C. Sen.