Axel Pries - Biography#

After studying medicine, Axel Radlach Pries received his doctoral degree (summa cum laude) from the University of University of Cologne in 1980. Until 1985, he worked in Cologne as a Postdoctoral Fellow, then moved to the Institute of Physiology of the Freie Universität Berlin (FU) where he obtained habilitation (1990) and became Associate Professor at the Department of Physiology (1995). From 1997 to 1998 Pries worked as Senior Physician for Anaesthesiology at the German Heart Center Berlin. In 1998 he became Full Professor at the FU Institute for Physiology.

From 2001 to 2015 he was Head of the Institute for Physiology of the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin where he was also Vice Director of the Centre for Preclinical Medicine (2008-2015) and Vice Director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Research (2009-2013). From 1984 to 2014 he was consultant for NIH grants at the University of Arizona (PI - Tim Secomb) with yearly visits for one month.

In the period 2003-2015, Pries was Board Member of the Faculty Board of Charité. From 2015 to 2022 he was Dean and member of the Executive Board of Charité. From 2018-2020 he served as interim CEO of the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and in parallel as President of the Biomedical Alliance in Europe. Since 2015 he chairs the Board of Trustees of the Charité Research Organization. 2021, he became President of the World Health Summit in Berlin and since 2023 he is Pro-Rector of the Danube Private University in Krems / Austria.

Axel Pries held leading functions in academic societies, including the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the International Union of Physiological Societies (IUPS), the European Society for Microcirculation (ESM), the International Liaison Committee for Microcirculation (ILCM) and the German Society for Microcirculation and Vascular Biology (GfMVB).

His awards include the Abbott Microcirculation Award of the European Society for Microcirculation (1986), the Lafon Hemorheology-Microcirculation Award of the International Society for Clinical Haemorheology (1995), the Malpighi Award of the European Society for Microcirculation (2011), the Silver Medal of the European Society of Cardiology (2015), the Poiseuille Gold Medal of International Society of Biorheology (2018) and the Doctor Honoris Causa of NIMS University (2023).

Axel Pries has contributed significantly to microcirculatory research in four areas: a) flow properties of blood in microvessels and blood rheology, establishing parametric descriptions of flow resistance in small vessels which are considered as gold standard. b) the analysis of microvascular network properties and organ perfusion, c) endothelial function and the endothelial surface layer. d) vascular adaptation and tumour microcirculation, generating the only comprehensive mathematical model of structural vascular diameter and wall thickness adaptation in realistic microvascular networks.