Fabian Leendertz studied veterinary medicine at the University of Budapest and the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin. In 2005, he became a doctor of veterinary medicine and group leader of the Primate Diseases Group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Then he became head of the Emerging Zoonoses Junior Research Group at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) Berlin until 2012 and qualified as a specialist veterinarian in microbiology. As head of the RKI project group Epidemiology of Highly Pathogenic Pathogens (2012 - 2021), he habilitated in microbiology at the FU Berlin in 2016. In 2021, Fabian Leendertz was appointed founding director of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) in Greifswald and professor of One Health at the University of Greifswald.

Fabian Leendertz's major achievements include the discovery of a new type of anthrax pathogen (Bacillus cereus bv anthracis) and the first description of leprosy in wild apes. In addition, he led the investigation into the point of origin of the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014 and was a member of the WHO expert group investigating the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, Prof Leendertz heads one of the three branch offices of the German national One Health Platform and is a member of various advisory boards. These include the advisory committee of the One Health Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the scientific commission of the Great Apes Survival Partnership of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the expert pool on pandemic preparedness of the German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), the SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) working group on One Health governance in the EU, the STAR-IDAZ (Strategic Alliance for the Coordination of Research on the major Infectious Diseases of Animals and Zoonoses) & GloPID-R (Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness) collaborative Working Group on One Health, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ivorian National Park Authority Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves (OIPR). In addition, Fabian Leendertz holds memberships in both, the French Académie Nationale de Médicine and the Académie Vétérinaire de France.

In recognition of his commitment to implementing the One Health concept, Fabian Leendertz was awarded UNEP’s Champion of the Earth Award in 2020. In 2023, he was honored by the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg with the Hamburg Science Prize for his groundbreaking achievements in the field of zoonotic infectious diseases using the One Health concept.

Prof. Leendertz leads seminars and practical exercises in the module ‘Ecological and Evolutionary Approaches to Understanding Health and Disease’ in the Master's program ‘Biodiversity, Ecology & Evolution’. In the Bachelor's program Human Biology, he offers an advanced module in genetics, which provides students with the opportunity to pursue a thesis project afterwards.

Selected Publications

Riutord-Fe C, Schlotterbeck J, Lagostino L, Kouadio L, Gonedelé-Bi SE, Gogarten JF, Calvignac-Spencer S, Dux A, Patrono LV, Leendertz FH. Transmission of MPXV from fire-footed rope squirrels to sooty mangabeys. Nature. 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-10086-y.

Malaka CN, Patrono LV, Tombolomako TB, Calvignac-Spencer S, Nakoune E, Leendertz FH, Boum II Y. Genomic epidemiology of clade Ia monkeypox viruses circulating in the Central African Republic in 2022–24: a retrospective cross-sectional study. The Lancet Microbe. 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.lanmic.2025.101173.

Gogarten JF, Düx A, Gräßle T, Calvignac-Spencer S, Leendertz FH. An ounce of prevention is better: Monitoring wildlife health as a tool for pandemic prevention. EMBO Reports. 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s44319-024-00156-z.

Hockings KJ, Mubemba B, …, Leendertz FH. Leprosy in wild chimpanzees. Nature. 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03968-4.

Leendertz FH, Kalema-Zikusoka G. Vaccinate in biodiversity hotspots to protect people and wildlife from each other. Nature. 2021. DOI: 10.1038/d41586-021-00690-z.

Keita AK, Koundouno FR, Faye M, Düx A, Hinzmann J, Duraffour S, Faye O, Leendertz FH, Peeters M, Toure A, Magassouba F. Resurgence of Ebola virus in 2021 in Guinea suggests a new paradigm for outbreaks. Nature. 2021. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03901-9.

Patrono LV, Pleh K, Leendertz FH. Monkeypox virus emergence in wild chimpanzees reveals distinct clinical outcomes and viral diversity. Nature Microbiology. 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-020-0706-0.

Düx A, Lequime S, Leendertz FH, Harper K, Schnalke T, Lemey P, Calvignac-Spencer S. Measles virus and rinderpest virus divergence dated to the sixth century BCE. Science. 2020. DOI: 10.1126/science.aba9411.

Hoffmann C, Zimmermann F, Leendertz FH. Persistent anthrax as a major driver of wildlife mortality in a tropical rainforest. Nature. 2017. DOI: 10.1038/nature23309.

Marí Saéz A, Weiss S, Nowak K, Lapeyre V, Leendertz FH. Investigating the zoonotic origin of the West African Ebola epidemic. EMBO Molecular Medicine. 2015. DOI: 10.15252/emmm.201404792.