Ehrenreich, Hannelore, Prof. Dr. Dr.


  • 1981 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, University of Munich
  • 1983 Elective Period, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
  • 1985 Guest Lecturer, University of the Philippines, Manila
  • 1985 - 1986 Clinical Fellow, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Munich
  • 1987 Graduation (Medicine), University of Munich
  • 1987 - 1988 Residency, Department of Neurology, University of Munich
  • 1989 Doctor of Medicine, University of Munich
  • 1989 - 1991 Postdoctoral Fellow NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA (Dr. A.S. Fauci)
  • 1992 - 1994 Residency, Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, University of Göttingen
  • 1994 Habilitation (Neurology and Psychiatry)
  • 1994 - 2023 Head, Clinical Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences
  • 1995 - present Consultant & Professor of Neurology & Psychiatry, University of Göttingen
  • 2000 - 2002 Vice President, University of Göttingen
  • 2008 Professor of Biology and Psychology (Honorary), University of Göttingen
  • 2016 Member of the Leopoldina, German National Academy of Science
  • 2020 Jean Delay Prize of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA)



Major Research Interests
Translational Neuroscience
Research with particular focus on:
(1) Genetic and environmental underpinnings of neuropsychiatric diseases;
(2) Endogenous neuroprotection and neuroregeneration as therapeutic strategies for patients: Research centering on the brain erythropoietin system and hypoxia;
(3) Autoimmune and inflammatory processes contributing to neuropsychiatric phenotypes.


Selected Recent Publications


  • Wilke JBH, Hindermann M, Berghoff SA, Zihsler S, Arinrad S, Ronnenberg A, Barnkothe N, Steixner-Kumar AA, Röglin S, Stöcker W, Hollmann M, Nave KA, Lühder F, Ehrenreich H. Autoantibodies against NMDA receptor 1 modify rather than cause encephalitis. Mol Psychiatry. 2021 Jul 30. doi: 10.1038/s41380-021-01238-3. Online ahead of print. PMID: 34331009
  • Wilke JBH, Hindermann M, Moussavi A, Butt UJ, Dadarwal R, Berghoff SA, Sarcheshmeh AK, Ronnenberg A, Zihsler S, Arinrad S, Hardeland R, Seidel J, Lühder F, Nave KA, Boretius S, Ehrenreich H. Inducing sterile pyramidal neuronal death in mice to model distinct aspects of gray matter encephalitis. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2021 Jul 2;9(1):121. doi: 10.1186/s40478-021-01214-6.
  • Fernandez Garcia-Agudo L, Steixner-Kumar A, Curto Y, Barnkothe N, Hassouna I,Jähne S, Butt UJ, Grewe K, Weber MS, Green K, Rizzoli S, Nacher J, Nave KA, Ehrenreich H. (2021) Brain erythropoietin fine-tunes a counterbalance between neurodifferentiation and microglia in the adult hippocampus; Cell Reports 36, 109548, August 24, 2021 ª https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.10954
  • Butt UJ, Steixner-Kumar AA, Depp C, Sun T, Hassouna I, Wüstefeld L, Arinrad S, Zillmann MR, Schopf N, Fernandez Garcia-Agudo L, Mohrmann L, Bode U, Ronnenberg A, Hindermann M, Goebbels S, Bonn S, Katschinski DM, Miskowiak KW, Nave KA, Ehrenreich H. (2021) Hippocampal neurons respond to brain activity with functional hypoxia. Mol Psychiatry. Feb 9. doi: 10.1038/s41380-020-00988-w. Online ahead of print
  • Steixner-Kumar AA, Daguano Gastaldi V, Seidel J, Rosenberger A, Begemann M, Ehrenreich H. (2021) Preadult polytoxicomania-strong environmental underpinnings and first genetic hints. Mol Psychiatry. Apr 7. doi: 10.1038/s41380-021-01069-2. Online ahead of print.
  • Wakhloo D, Scharkowski F, Curto Y, Butt UJ, Bansal V, Steixner-Kumar AA, Wüstefeld L, Rajput A, Arinrad S, Zillmann MR, Seelbach A, Hassouna I, Schneider K, Ibrahim AQ, Werner HB, Martens H, Miskowiak K, Wojcik SM, Bonn S, Nacher J, Nave KA, Ehrenreich H (2020) Functional hypoxia drives neuroplasticity and neurogenesis via brain erythropoietin. Nature Communications 11: 1-12
  • Pan H, Oliveira B, Saher G, Dere E, Tapken D, Mitjans M, Seidel J, Wesolowski J, Wakhloo D, Klein-Schmidt C, Ronnenberg A, Schwabe K, Trippe R, Mätz-Rensing K, Berghoff S, Al-Krinawe Y, Martens H, Begemann M, Stöcker W, Kaup FJ, Mischke R, Boretius S, Nave KA, Krauss JK, Hollmann M, Lühder F, Ehrenreich H (2019) Uncoupling the widespread occurrence of anti-NMDAR1 autoantibodies from neuropsychiatric disease in a novel autoimmune model; Mol Psychiatry. 24(10):1489-1501
  • Janova H, Arinrad S, Balmuth E, Mitjans M, Hertel J, Habes M, Bittner RA, Pan H, Goebbels S, Begemann M, Gerwig UC, Langner S, Werner HB, Kittel-Schneider S, Homuth G, Davatzikos C, Völzke H, West BL, Reif A, Grabe HJ, Boretius S, Ehrenreich H*, Nave KA (2018) Microglia ablation alleviates myelin-associated catatonic signs in mice; J Clin Invest, 128(2):734-745. doi: 10.1172/JCI 97032. Epub 2017 Dec 18. *shared last authorship
  • Bansal V, Mitjans M, Burik CAP, Linnér RK, Okbay A, Rietveld CA, Begemann M, Bonn S, Ripke S, de Vlaming R, Nivard MG, Ehrenreich H*, Koellinger PD (2018) Genome-wide association study results for educational attainment aid in identifying genetic heterogeneity of schizophrenia. Nature Communications 9(1):3078. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05510-z. *shared last authorship
  • Ehrenreich H, Mitjans M, Van der Auwera S, Centeno TP, Begemann M, Grabe HJ, Bonn S, Nave KA (2018) OTTO: A new strategy to extract mental disease-relevant combinations of GWAS hits from individuals; Mol Psychiatry . 23(2):476-486