Dr. med. Konrad Peukert

Konrad Peukert is a physician-scientist specialized in anesthesiology and intensive care medicine. After completing his medical studies at Hannover Medical School, Germany, he joined the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Bonn in 2015, where he pursued clinical and postdoctoral fellowships. 

Konrad Peukert’s research focuses on immunological and metabolic mechanisms in critical ill patients, particularly those with in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). His work has received numerous national and international accolades, including the Fresenius Foundation Research Grant of the German Society for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI) and the Research Award for Experimental Medicine of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIV).

Recognizing the limitations of syndrome-based frameworks in critical care, Peukert’s research seeks to identify distinct ARDS subphenotypes to pave the way for personalized therapies.

In this context, together with a team of basic scientists and clinicians, he succeeded in uncovering metabolic differences in ARDS caused by different pathogens including SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. Specifically in SARS-CoV-2-induced ARDS, impaired beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) production lead to exhausted T cells with reduced functionality. Metabolic reprogramming by BHB administration restored oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), enhancing T cell survival and interferon-γ production. Ketogenic diet or BHB supplementation improved T cell function and reduced ALI-related mortality in SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza infected mice (Karagiannis, F, Peukert K, Surace L. et al. Impaired ketogenesis ties metabolism to T cell dysfunction in COVID-19. Nature (2022). .

Additionally, his research identified distinct inflammatory profiles in ARDS. Pulmonary ARDS patients exhibit elevated IL-1β and IL-18 signatures in the lung. Continuous inhibition of these cytokines significantly reduced lung damage and improved survival in mice, highlighting the potential of targeted metabolic and immunological interventions to improve outcomes (Peukert, K. et al. Inhibition of Caspase-1 with Tetracycline Ameliorates Acute Lung Injury. Am J Respir Crit Care Med (2021).).

Konrad Peukert is currently working on the sequelae of ARDS in terms of defective tissue regeneration. In collaboration with an interdisciplinary group of intensivists of

the Bonn-Hannover-Zurich Study Group (BonHanZA), he is using a translational approach to investigate the influence of different ARDS entities on the development of pulmonary fibrosis.