Erika Jensen-Jarolim

Erika Jensen-Jarolim is an Austrian physician and medical researcher in immunology and allergies. She was formerly head of the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research at the Medical University of Vienna, and since 2011 has held the joint professorship in Comparative Medicine at the Medical University and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, part of the inter-university Messerli Research Institute.

Education and career
Jensen-Jarolim earned her degree in human medicine in 1985 in Vienna, and since then has specialised in allergology and immunology. After her habilitation she founded an independent research group in 1999, completed her medical specialisation in immunology in 2000, and in 2007 became professor of pathophysiology. From 2004 to 2008, she was a board member of the Austrian Society of Allergology and Immunology (ÖGAI), and from 2006 to 2011 she headed the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research at the Medical University of Vienna, and from 2008 to 2011 was also on the University Senate of the Medical University of Vienna.Austria Press Agency, "Professur für Erika Jensen-Jarolim", Der Standard, 1 August 2011 : "Mit der Expertin für Allergologie und Immunologie, Erika Jensen-Jarolim, ist die erste von insgesamt vier Professuren des neuen Messerli-Instituts für Mensch-Tier-Beziehung an der Veterinärmedizinischen Universität (Vetmed) in Wien besetzt worden. [Sie] hat ihre Professur für Komparative Medizin am Montag (1. August) angetreten." - The first of a total of four professorships at the new Messerli Institute for Human-Animal Relations at the University of Veterninary Medicine in Vienna (Vetmed) has been filled, with Erika Jensen-Jarolim, the expert in allergology and immunology. [She] took up her Professorship in Comparative Medicine on Monday (1 August). "Ab 2006 leitete sie das Institut für Pathophysiologie und Allergieforschung (IPA) an der Medizinischen Universität Wien. Im gleichen Jahr gründete sie in einer Kooperation mit der Vetmed den Verein Rote Pfote, der sich der Erforschung von Krebsformen und Therapien bei Mensch und Tier widmet." - From 2006, she led the Institute for Pathophysiology and Allergy Research (IPA) at the Medical University of Vienna. The same year, in a cooperation with the Vetmed, she founded the Verein Rote Pfote, which is dedicated to researching forms of cancer and therapies in humans and animals. "Seit 2008 war Jensen-Jarolim auch Mitglied des Universitätsrats der Vetmed. Mit Antritt ihrer Professur am Messerli-Institut legte sie sowohl die Leitung des IPA als auch ihren Sitz im Universitätsrat der Vetmed zurück." - Since 2008, Jensen-Jarolim had also been a member of the Senate of the Vetmed. On taking up her professorship at the Messerli Institute, she resigned both the leadership of the IPA and her seat in the University Senate. "Das im Jänner 2010 gegründete Messerli-Institut entstand aus einer Kooperation der Vetmed mit der MedUni Wien und der Universität Wien." - The Messerli Institute, founded in January 2010, developed out of a collaboration of the Vetmed with the [Medical University of Vienna] and the University of Vienna. In 2006, she founded the Verein Rote Pfote (Red Paw Organisation) in cooperation with the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, to facilitate research into cancer and its treatment in animals and humans. In August 2011 she became the first of four professors appointed to the inter-university Messerli-Research Institute, founded in January 2010, where she is Professor of Comparative Medicine, a joint appointment of the two universities. Since 2014 she has been deputy editor of the World Allergy Organization Journal.

She is a founder and Scientific Consultant of Biomedical International R + D GmbH, a company which is developing vaccines for allergy and cancer.

Research and publications
A main focus of Jensen-Jarolim's research is pathophysiological mechanisms for allergies and oncology such as mimotope vaccines and food allergies. Her laboratory has studied the major allergen in birch pollen, Bet v 1 since the late 1980s, and has worked out a mechanism by which Bet v I causes allergies. She has studied the inverse correlation between allergy and cancer. To foster research on the function of IgE in cancer she claims to have coined the term allergooncology at the 2006 meeting of the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum and hosted the first International AllergoOncology Symposium in Vienna the following year. Jensen-Jarolim has co-authored a dictionary of allergology and immunology and co-edited a textbook on AllergoOncology and edited a textbook on comparative anatomy and physiology.

Honours
Among honours she has received is the bronze medal at KIWIE 2010, in Seoul, for tumor vaccine technology.