PD Dr Christina Bergmann has received the 2026 Rudolf Schoen Award of the DGRh Foundation for her pioneering research into systemic sclerosis and the regeneration of fibrotic tissue. The award was presented at the German Congress of Rheumatology in Leipzig.
Challenging a long-held assumption
Systemic sclerosis is a severe autoimmune disease in which inflammation and damage to small blood vessels lead to fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. As the tissue becomes thicker and harder, it gradually loses its normal structure and function.
For a long time, advanced fibrosis was regarded as permanent scarring. Christina Bergmann’s research challenges this assumption. Her work indicates that fibrosis is a dynamic disease process and that damaged tissue may retain the capacity to regenerate.
Connecting patient care and tissue research
Christina Bergmann studied medicine at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. After clinical training in paediatrics at University Hospital Frankfurt and Kantonsspital Winterthur in Switzerland, she joined the Department of Medicine 3 – Rheumatology and Immunology at Universitätsklinikum Erlangen in 2014. Today, she works there as senior physician and clinician-scientist.
Her research focuses on systemic sclerosis and the biological mechanisms driving fibrosis. At Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, she treated the first patient with systemic sclerosis using CD19 CAR T-cell therapy. She and her team subsequently analysed how the affected tissue changed following treatment.
The clinical improvements included softer skin, healing of wounds on the fingers and improved hand function. Analyses of tissue samples also revealed signs that functional structures of the skin were beginning to reappear. These findings suggest that CAR T-cell therapy may do more than suppress inflammation: it could enable the tissue to reorganise and recover.
Opening new perspectives for fibrotic diseases
Christina Bergmann’s work changes how fibrosis can be understood, not simply as an irreversible scar, but as a disease process that may be reversible. This insight opens new avenues for investigating treatments that address both the immune system and the resulting tissue damage.
The Rudolf Schoen Award honours outstanding rheumatological research and supports the further development of innovative scientific approaches.
We warmly congratulate Christina Bergmann on this outstanding and well-deserved recognition.