Elmar Jaeckel is a gastroenterologist, hepatologist, endocrinologist, and transplant specialist. He currently serves as the Medical Director of the Liver Transplant Program and the Medical director of the islet transplant program at the Ajmera Transplant Centre, University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto.
Dr. Jaeckel’s international academic background includes studies at the University of Hamburg, Yale, UCSD, Edinburgh, and Sydney. He completed his clinical training at Hannover Medical School (MHH) and holds a degree in Medical Hospital Management. His research foundation was established during a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School under Harald von Boehmer, focusing on immune tolerance.
Since 2003, Dr. Jaeckel has led a research group dedicated to tissue-specific tolerance in autoimmunity, metabolic inflammation, and transplantation. At MHH, he served as a senior attending for one of Eurotransplant’s largest liver programs and co-chaired multiple DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centres (CRC 738, CRC TR127) and the Integrated Research Center Transplantation (IFB-Tx). His work has been supported by the DFG, the European Community, the Helmsley Foundation, and the JDRF.
A pioneer in cellular therapy, Dr. Jaeckel developed tissue-specific regulatory T-cell (Treg) therapies and holds numerous patents for tolerance induction. He is a co-founder of Quell Therapeutics, translating Treg research into clinical applications. His expertise spans investigator-initiated trials and Phase II–IV clinical studies. Since joining UHN in 2022, his research has focused on tolerance signatures, individualized immunosuppression, and the integration of cell and gene therapies to revolutionize transplant outcomes.