Ute-Christiane Meier
Dr. med. habil., PhD (Oxon)
Neuroimmunologist
Affiliations
- Institute of Laboratory Medicine, LMU University Hospital Munich
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London
- Steering Committee on Immunopsychiatry, World Psychiatric Association
- Formerly: Neuroinflammation and Psychoimmunology Group, Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London
- DPhil, University of Oxford
About
Ute-Christiane Meier is a neuroimmunologist whose research asks a question most people never think to ask about vitamin D: whether low levels are a cause of immune dysregulation, or a consequence of it.
She completed her doctorate at the University of Oxford and began her career in vaccine research at the Edward Jenner Institute. She spent thirteen years at the Blizard Institute at Queen Mary University of London, leading work on neuroinflammation and psychoimmunology, and now holds positions at LMU University Hospital Munich and at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London. She sits on the World Psychiatric Association's steering committee for immunopsychiatry.
Her published work spans the role of vitamin D in immune regulation, the relationship between vitamin D status and inflammatory markers, and environmental risk factors in neurological and psychiatric disease. She holds patents in the United States and Europe covering the use of vitamin D alongside markers of inflammation as a combined measure of immune activation.
Research focus
- Vitamin D and immune regulation
- Low-grade inflammation and inflammatory biomarkers
- Neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration
- Immunopsychiatry
- Environmental risk factors in multiple sclerosis
- Viral immunology
Selected publications
- Meier U-C, Ramagopalan S, Müller N. Environmental risk factors and inflammation in psychiatric and neurological disease. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2022.
- Kočovská E, Gaughran F, Krivoy A, Meier U-C. Vitamin-D deficiency as a potential environmental risk factor in multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, and autism. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2017.
- Kuhle J, Disanto G, Dobson R, et al. Conversion from clinically isolated syndrome to multiple sclerosis: a large multicentre study. Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 2015.
- Meier U-C, Giovannoni G, Tzartos JS, Khan G. B cells in multiple sclerosis: drivers of disease pathogenesis and Trojan horse for Epstein-Barr virus entry to the central nervous system? Clinical and Experimental Immunology, 2012.
- Disanto G, Meier U, Giovannoni G, Ramagopalan SV. Vitamin D: a link between Epstein-Barr virus and multiple sclerosis development? Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 2011.
- Ramagopalan SV, Dobson R, Meier UC, Giovannoni G. Multiple sclerosis: risk factors, prodromes, and potential causal pathways. The Lancet Neurology, 2010.
Patents
- US 11,346,849 B2 — Methods for the prediction, prognosis, and/or diagnosis of an inflammatory response associated with schizophrenia (2022)
- EP 3 011 344 B1 — Biomarkers for inflammatory response
Disclosure: Dr. Meier holds patents in the United States and Europe relating to the measurement of vitamin D alongside inflammatory markers, and is pursuing commercialisation of this work. Her contributions to D3X are editorial. She receives no compensation from D3X and has no financial interest in the company.