Research

Günter Klöppel is distinguished for many important contributions to the pathology of the pancreas and of neuroendocrine tumours. The majority of these were made at the Department of Pathology of the University of Kiel, which he led for 13 years, after moving from Brussels to Kiel, and developed into a world renowned institution.

His most important scientific contributions were to research on the precursor lesions of pancreatic carcinoma, the description and classification of particular pancreatic tumours, the pathogenesis of pancreatitis and the classification of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours.

He and his co-workers were the first to investigate the molecular genesis of pancreatic tumours and the duodenal tumours in MEN1 patients at the histological level and to characterise them in detail. On the basis of these studies he developed a hypothesis on the stepwise molecular origin of neuroendocrine tumours.