Christian Brander graduated from the University of Bern in 1994 with a PhD in Immunology studying exogenous antigen re-presentation on HLA class I molecules and T-cell hyper-reactivity reactions to Penicillin. He then spent 13 years at Harvard University focusing on cellular immunity to viral infections and the impact that host genetics have on this immune response. He joined ICREA in 2008 with an appointment at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute to continue his work on host genetics and the cellular immunity to viral infections,including HIV,HCV and herpesviruses such as KSHV and EBV. He is the curator of the Los Alamos HIV Immunology database and the scientific director of the HIVACAT program,a project for the development of effective preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines.