Draft:Sven Perner

• Comment: In preparing this draft, I disclose that AI assistance was used as follows: I used ChatGPT to translate the existing German Wikipedia article “Sven Perner” into English and adapt its Wikipedia formatting. The references were carried over from the German article. ChatGPT did not independently verify the sources. Hamax1 (talk) 08:02, 1 October 2026 (UTC)
• Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. Hamax1 (talk) 07:53, 1 October 2026 (UTC)

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Sven Roger Perner (born 29 February 1972 in Ellwangen) is a German pathologist. From 2015 to 2023, he was director of the Institute of Pathology at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck campus, and held the chair of pathology at the University of Lübeck. His research focuses on the molecular pathology of solid tumours, particularly prostate cancer.

Education and career

Perner completed his Abitur at the Hariolf-Gymnasium in Ellwangen in 1991 and undertook training at the local nursing school. From 1992 to 1999, he studied medicine at Ulm University, where he received his doctorate in 2003. He began his specialist training in pathology at Ulm University Hospital.

In 2004, he joined Mark A. Rubin's research group at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, as a postdoctoral research fellow. From 2007, he worked at Weill Cornell Medical Center, Cornell University. He completed his habilitation at the University of Tübingen in 2009. From 2008 to 2010, he also led a junior research group funded through the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

In 2010, Perner was appointed to a W2 professorship at the University of Bonn, where he served as managing senior physician at the Institute of Pathology and headed the Rudolf Becker Foundation's section for prostate cancer research. In 2015, he was appointed to a W3 professorship in Lübeck and became director of its Institute of Pathology. He also headed Clinical and Experimental Pathology at Research Center Borstel, the Leibniz Lung Center, and was a principal investigator at the German Center for Lung Research. He stepped down from both of these additional roles in 2023.

Since 2023, Perner has been chief operating officer of MVZ Hanse Histologikum in Hamburg. In 2024, he also became managing director of MVZ Zentrum für ambulante Onkologie Tübingen. In July 2024, he founded the Pathora Institut für Pathologie und Gewebemedizin in Tübingen.

Research

Perner's work is primarily translational, linking experimental tumour biology with diagnostic pathology. His main focus is prostate cancer, alongside tumours of the lungs and upper respiratory tract.

He became known for his work on the TMPRSS2–ERG gene fusion, a translocation found in approximately half of all prostate cancers and regarded as an early event in their development. His Emmy Noether research group aimed to use this finding to develop a non-invasive, urine-based diagnostic approach. Collaborations with Harvard Medical School and the University of Michigan resulted in patents relating to ETS gene fusions and PSMA-based diagnostic and therapeutic methods. His funding sources have included the DFG, the Rudolf Becker Foundation and the United States Department of Defense.

PubMed lists more than 330 publications to which he has contributed.

Selected publications

• With Glen Kristiansen (eds.): Histopathologische Diagnostik der Prostatastanzbiopsie. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 2020. ISBN 978-3-662-60642-1.
• With Florian Stellmacher (eds.): Pathologie nicht-neoplastischer Lungenerkrankungen. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 2024. ISBN 978-3-662-67073-6.
• Contributing author: Thomas Kirchner et al., Kurzlehrbuch Pathologie. Elsevier, Munich. ISBN 978-3-437-43309-2.
• Contributing author: Gerald Höfler et al., Lehrbuch Pathologie. Elsevier, Munich. ISBN 978-3-437-42391-8.

Memberships and honours

Perner has been a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath) since 2019 and is an International Fellow of the College of American Pathologists. He served as Schleswig-Holstein regional chair of the Berufsverband Deutscher Pathologen, the German professional association of pathologists, and as chair of the association of pathologists in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Together with Christiane Kümpers, he produces the pathology podcasts Patho aufs Ohr and Patho? Logisch!.

External links

• Publications on PubMed
• DFG researcher profile on GEPRIS
• Sven Perner in the German National Library catalogue
• Sven Perner in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek