Jochen Hess

Jochen Hess, PhD is Professor of Experimental Head and Neck Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital and leads the Molecular Mechanisms of Head and Neck Tumors section at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). He is an international authority on the molecular virology of HPV-associated HNSCC, the immunobiology of the HPV+ tumor microenvironment, and translational development of therapeutic HPV vaccines. His laboratory has defined key molecular signatures distinguishing HPV-positive from HPV-negative HNSCC and has identified viral oncoproteins E6 and E7 as optimal targets for therapeutic vaccination and adoptive T-cell therapy in oropharyngeal cancer. He has also contributed to large-scale genomic analyses of HNSCC within the TCGA consortium and DKFZ-led translational programs, and serves as a scientific coordinator for European Head and Neck Society (EHNS) research initiatives. Dr. Hess has published over 200 peer-reviewed studies and holds patents on HPV-targeting immunotherapy strategies.