Curriculum Vitae
Harald Engler is Full Professor and Head of Laboratory at the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, Essen University Hospital. He studied biology with an emphasis on animal physiology at the University of Bayreuth. After obtaining his PhD, he worked from 2002 until 2004 as a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Neuroendocrine Immunology, The Ohio State University, Columbus (USA). In 2004, he joined the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, where he started his research on immune-to-brain communication. In 2008, he moved as a group leader to the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunobiology, University Hospital Essen, where he obtained the venia legendi in Behavioral Immunobiology. In 2019, he was appointed as Full Professor for Behavioral Immunobiology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Interests
The primary focus of my translational research is on functional brain-immune interactions with a special emphasis on the role of inflammation in the etiology and pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Another focus of my research group is on the regulation of immune responses by neurotransmitters and hormones.
Research projects
The impact of inflammation on fear extinction
Funding: SFB 1280, subproject A12 (project ID: 316803389)
Neurobiological mechanisms of negative treatment expectation
Funding: TRR 289, subproject A10 (project ID: 422744262)
Overarching psychometric and neuroendocrine assessments
Funding: TRR 289, central scientific project Z02 (project ID: 422744262)
Inflammation and mood
Intramural Funding of the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen (IFORES)
Animal models of neuropsychiatric disease
Funding: DFG EN 814/2-1 (project ID: 264577147)
Selected publications
Flasbeck V*, Engler H*, Marková V, Schedlowski M, Brüne M (2026). Between care and contagion: Insights from the endotoxin model into the social facets of sickness. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 180:106486.
Gomes CA, Bach DR, Razi A, Batsikadze G, Elsenbruch S, Engler H, Ernst TM, Fellner MC, Fraenz C, Genç E, Klass A, Labrenz F, Lissek S, Merz CJ, Metzen D, Nostadt A, Pawlik RJ, Schneider JE, Tegenthoff M, Thieme A, Wolf OT, Güntürkün O, Quick HH, Kumsta R, Timmann D, Spisak T, Axmacher N (2026). Predicting individual differences of fear and cognitive learning and extinction. Nat Commun. 17: 3780.
Flasbeck V, Schedlowski M, Brüne M, Engler H (2025). Impact of experimental inflammation on the neuronal processing of cardiac interoceptive signals and heart rate variability in humans. Neuroimage. 314: 121257.
Lanters L, Öhlmann H, Langhorst J, Theysohn N, Engler H, Icenhour A, Elsenbruch S (2024). Disease-specific alterations in central fear network engagement during acquisition and extinction of conditioned interoceptive fear in inflammatory bowel disease. Mol Psychiatry. 29:3527-3536.
Pawlik RJ, Petrakova L, Cueillette A, Krawczyk K, Theysohn N, Elsenbruch S, Engler H (2023). Inflammation shapes neural processing of interoceptive fear predictors during extinction learning in healthy humans. Brain Behav Immun. 108: 328-339.
Lasselin J, Lekander M, Benson S, Schedlowski M, Engler H (2021). Sick for science: experimental endotoxemia as a translational tool to develop and test new therapies for inflammation-associated depression. Mol Psychiatry. 26: 3672-3683.
Benson S, Rebernik L, Pastoors D, Brinkhoff A, Wegner A, Elsenbruch S, Engler H (2020). Impact of acute inflammation on the extinction of aversive gut memories. Brain Behav Immun. 88: 294-301.
Engler H, Brendt P, Wischermann J, Wegner A, Röhling R, Schoemberg T, Meyer U, Gold R, Peters J, Benson S, Schedlowski M (2017). Selective increase of cerebrospinal fluid IL-6 during experimental systemic inflammation in humans: association with depressive symptoms. Mol Psychiatry. 22: 1448-1454.
Giovanoli S, Engler H, Engler A, Richetto J, Voget M, Willi R, Winter C, Riva MA, Mortensen PB, Feldon J, Schedlowski M, Meyer U (2013). Stress in puberty unmasks latent neuropathological consequences of prenatal immune activation in mice. Science. 339: 1095-1099.
