Dr Joachim Lupberger studied Biotechnology at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany and graduated with a master thesis project in microbiology that he conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2007, he was awarded with a PhD from the Humboldt University of Berlin in the field of virus-host interactions in viral hepatitis. In 2007, he joined the team of Prof. Thomas Baumert at Inserm U1110 in Strasbourg studying the relevance of signaling molecules for the life cycle of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Among others, he identified receptor tyrosine kinases as novel entry factors for HCV and regulators of the co-receptor complex (Lupberger and Zeisel et al., Nature Medicine 2011; Zona and Lupberger et al., Cell Host and Microbe 2013) and highlighted the importance of virus-induced signal transduction for viral pathogenesis and cancer (Mailly et al., Nature Biotechnology 2015; Van Renne et al., Gut 2018; Lupberger et al. Gastroenterology 2019; Butterworth et al. Pathogens 2021). In 2013, he was awarded by a tenured position as research associate (CRCN, Inserm) and obtained his habilitation (HDR) from the University of Strasbourg in 2017. Since 2022 he is research director (DR2, Inserm) and group leader at Inserm U1110.

His current research is focuses on the characterization of signal transduction induced by chronic viral hepatitis and its consequences for viral life cycle and the development of advanced liver disease, including fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Combining state-of-the art infection models, high-throughput screening technologies and genome-wide -omics studies. He aims to identify specific and common signaling pathways as drivers for the viral life cycle and liver disease progression as well as HCC risk biomarkers. Targeting disease-relevant signaling pathways by small molecules will be part of future chemo-preventive strategies to reduce cancer-risk in risk patients independent of the underlying liver disease etiology.