Rate My Professor Christian Ottensmeier

Professor Christian Ottensmeier is Professor of Immuno-Oncology in the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine within the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool. Holding MD, PhD, and FRCP qualifications, he graduated from Westfälische Wilhelms-University Münster, Germany, undertook a training fellowship at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, and completed his oncology training in Southampton. His PhD examined the molecular immunology of B-cells in the laboratory of Freda Stevenson. Ottensmeier's career trajectory includes serving as Consultant in Medical Oncology at Southampton University Hospitals and Senior Lecturer at the University of Southampton from 2001, appointment as Chair in Experimental Cancer Medicine at Southampton in 2007, and Adjunct Professorship at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, CA, USA in 2019. He joined the University of Liverpool and Head and Neck Centre as Professor of Immuno-Oncology in August 2020 and was Director of Clinical Research at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre from 2020 to September 2025.

Ottensmeier's research specializes in understanding and improving immune responses in cancer patients to advance immunotherapies against solid cancers, with a focus on head and neck and lung cancers following prior work in melanoma. He directs laboratory investigations into the interplay of innate and adaptive immune cells, underpinned by tissue collections from approximately 4000 patients since 2015. He oversees a broad portfolio of clinical trials in solid cancers, co-developing national and international studies, and leads funded projects including personalised doggybone DNA vaccines for non-small cell lung cancer (Medical Research Council, 2023-2027) and immunological stratification of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (Clatterbridge Cancer Charity, 2023-2024). Notable publications encompass 'Constitutive inflammation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition dictate sensitivity to nivolumab in CONFIRM: a placebo-controlled, randomised phase III trial' (Nature Communications, 2025), 'Geospatial immune variability illuminates differential evolution of lung adenocarcinoma' (Nature Medicine, 2020), and 'DNA fusion-gene vaccination in patients with prostate cancer induces high-frequency CD8+ T-cell responses and increases PSA doubling time' (Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy, 2012). He holds roles as early phase subspecialty lead for CRN North West Coast Region, member of EATI and Cancer Vaccines Expert Working Group, and serves on editorial boards for Journal of Immunotherapy of Cancer and Immunotherapy Advances. Ottensmeier contributes to teaching in the 'Frontiers in Cancer Research and Treatment' module (LIFE724) and supervises theses on tumour-reactive T-cells in head and neck cancer.