Chair of DIvision
Medical University of Graz, Austria
Berthold Huppertz studied biology and earned his PhD at the largest German Research Centre. In 1994, Berthold joined the group of Peter Kaufmann, one of the most renowned placental morphologists, at the University of Aachen, Germany. Berthold became specialist in human anatomy and in 2006 he was appointed Professor of Cell Biology at the Medical University of Graz, Austria. In 2011 Berthold became director and CEO of Biobank Graz, Europe’s largest clinical biobank. In 2018 Berthold was appointed Chair of the Division of Cell Biology, Histology and Embryology at his university.
Berthold has pioneered the research on placental trophoblast apoptosis and turnover and introduced the apoptosis cascade to the human placenta. He focuses particularly on the regulation of trophoblast biology in preeclampsia and FGR. He is involved in studies seeking to identify biomarkers to predict preeclampsia and has challenged the current hypothesis on the etiology of preeclampsia. Berthold was member of the Executive Board of the International Federation of Placenta Associations (IFPA) and was member of the Editorial Boards/Associate Editor of a variety of journals in the field including the journals Placenta, Biology of Reproduction, Human Reproduction, Molecular Human Reproduction and Human Reproduction Update. He has published more than 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals, has been invited to a large number of conferences to give lectures, and has received a number of awards, including the IFPA Award in Placentology in 2009.