Biography

With over 25 years of experience in molecular biology, gene and cell biology, Prof Ritter’s research investigates the development of novel gene- and cell therapies for immune-mediated diseases of the eye. Prof. Ritter obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1994 from the Max-Planck Research group of Immunology/Rheumatology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

Having completed his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Marseille, Center of Immunology in 1995, Prof Ritter took up a faculty position at the prestigious Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany. He worked as a leader of the gene therapy programme in experimental transplantation in the Institute of Medical Immunology under the directorship of Prof Volk. Prof Ritter was successful in obtaining significant funding from the German Research Foundation and the Ministry of Health and Research as well as from industry (Schering). Prof Ritter completed his 'Habilitation' (postdoctoral lecture qualification) in Immunology in 2002 followed by a promotion to assistant professor in 2003.

Since his appointment at the National University of Ireland Galway in 2005 Prof Ritter was successful in obtaining substantial funding from several funding agencies including Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Health Research Board (HRB), Irish Research Council (IRC) and the European Union FP7 and H2020 programmes totalling in approx. €5M in direct costs. He has published more than 90 original research articles in peer-reviewed journals, 28 reviews, 1 editorial, 3 book chapters. Moreover, Prof Ritter has given more than 50 invited lectures, seminars and oral presentations. Prof Ritter served as Vice-Dean for Research in the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences of NUI Galway from 2012-2017. He is a funded investigator of the SFI research centre for Medical Devices CURAM. He currently serves as Associate Editor for the prestigious journal Molecular Therapy and also serves as ad hoc referee for many high impact journals. He also serves as Management Committee Member on three EU-funded European networks for Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST-Action) to facilitate and promote research cooperation. He also serves as grant assessor for many research funding agencies and is a member of several professional societies.

Please see here for research publications. Furthermore, for details on our current research endeavours please see our research group page here.