Jörg Striessnig

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jörg Striessnig (born 1959) studied at the medical faculty of the University of Innsbruck (now the Medical University) and graduated as a doctor of medicine in 1982.

After a short period of medical training, he began his research and teaching career in 1983 as a university assistant at the Institute of Biochemical Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine. After several short research stays in Germany, the USA and Japan, he worked for two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA). In 1991, he habilitated in pharmacology and toxicology and completed his training as a specialist in pharmacology and toxicology in 1994. In 1998, he became Professor of Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine. After turning down a call to the University of Vienna, he was appointed as a university full professor at the Institute of Pharmacy at the University of Innsbruck in 2001. There he was head of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology until 2024.

He was a member of the Academic Senate from 2003-2022, Head of the Center for Molecular Biosciences (CMBI) from 2008-2016 and a member of the Ethics Advisory Board of the University of Innsbruck from 2010-2024. He is a member and pharmacological expert of the Ethics Committee of the Medical University of Innsbruck since many years.

His research focused on elucidating the physiological and pharmacological properties of so-called voltage-activated calcium channels and their role in human diseases. From 2005 to 2022, his research group was continuously funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and was a member of several FWF-and EU-funded doctoral programs. From 2011-2019 he was spokesperson of the FWF Collaborative Research Center F-44 (Cell signaling in chronic CNS disorders).