Christian Brander graduated from the University of Bern in 1994 with a PhD in Immunology, having studied exogenous antigen re-presentation on HLA class and T-cell-mediated hyper-reactivity to penicillin. He spent the next 13 years at Harvard University, where he focused on cellular immunity to viral infections and the impact of host genetics on this immune response. He was awarded a Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) senior professorship in 2008 to continue his work on host genetics and cellular immunity to viral infections, including HIV, HCV and herpesviruses such as Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus and Epstein-Barr virus. He is a curator of the Los Alamos HIV Immunology database and the scientific director of the Catalan HIVACAT programme for the development of effective preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines. He holds associate professor positions at Vic University (UVic). He was rated among the most highly cited researchers of 2014 by Thompson Reuters.