Dr. Erik Rasbach

Dr. Erik Rasbach is a surgeon scientist who leads the Research Laboratory and the Interdisciplinary Glyco-Immuno-Oncology (IGIO) Research Group at the Department of General and Visceral Surgery of the Ulm University Medical Center (Director Prof. Dr. Nuh Rahbari).

From 2022 to 2024, Erik suspended his residency in visceral surgery to pursue postdoctoral basic research training in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Tobias Schatton at the Department of Dermatology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School. His objective was to mechanistically investigate novel homing and immune checkpoint receptor pathways driving skin cancer progression. To this end, Erik was supported by a Walter Benjamin Scholarship from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Upon his return to Germany in May 2024, Erik was appointed as Head of the Research Laboratory at the Department of General and Visceral Surgery. In parallel, he established his independent IGIO Research Group with support from a POTENTIAL Clinician Scientist Fellowship awarded by the Else-Kroener-Fresenius Foundation. The overarching goal of his research initiative is to leverage state-of-the-art glyco- and molecular biology techniques to investigate how cell surface carbohydrates (known as glycans) regulate the progression of chronic-inflammatory and malignant diseases. His work aims to decode and therapeutically target previously unrecognized glycoepitopes on the cell surface to ultimately expand the therapeutic arsenal in the fight against cancer.