Obituary: Professor Marcus Maurer, Berlin, Germany

On July 31, 2024 Professor Marcus Maurer (Figure 1), Executive Director of the Institute of Allergology at Charité University Medicine Berlin, Co-Director of the Institute of Immunology and Allergology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP, Professor for Dermatology and Allergy and Associate Director of the interdisciplinary Allergy Center at Charité, Berlin, Germany went on a hike to Monte Giove in the mountains near his vacation home on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy from which he did not return. His family raised alarm and numerous rescue teams including the fire department and civil defense searched for him in the area intensively for weeks before the official search operations were last discontinued. After more than a month of intensive search and a period of anxious waiting for his family and all friends we received the unspeakably sad news that his body was found in the Alpe Pizzocca area by a patrol unit of the Italian mountain rescue service lying under some tree trunks in a stream. According to initial findings, the body was washed to this place by the water. Prof. Maurer lived to be 58 years. The entire family of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) is deeply saddened by this unbelievable and indescribable loss. Marcus Maurer was not just an outstanding clinical allergy researcher. He was one of the most brilliant minds our field has ever seen. Mast cell and urticaria research is for many of us not thinkable without him. His contributions to the field were just outstanding and he worked in a class of his own. After Medical school at the universities of Mainz and Berlin in Germany he trained in Experimental Pathology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA from 1995 to 1998, achieved his Board Certification for Dermatology (2000) and Allergology (2003), and completed his Habilitation with a thesis on “Why do we have mast cells?” at the University of Mainz in 2003. He found his research focus with working on physiological and pathological functions of mast cells, mechanisms of pruritus and inflammation, autoallergy and autoimmunity, and his clinical focus on chronic urticaria, recurrent angioedema, mastocytosis, and their differential diagnoses. His incredibly successful research funding archive lists far more than 100 study projects. Marcus Maurer was one of the few who has succeeded in turning his visions into actual patient benefits. The national and international networks he has established and continuously expanded for patients (such as urticaria network e. V., UNEV), for healthcare providers (e.g., UCARE Centers of reference and excellence in urticaria, launched in 2016), and in the industry, have been of great value. Without his tireless efforts the world would look different for us as clinicians and for patients with urticaria and angioedema. It is only through his immense driving force and admirable persistence that we now have effective medications available and many more treatment options in the pipeline. His day must have had more than 24 hours, as there is no imaginable area he hasn't worked on. He co-developed technical devices for diagnostics, as well as numerous disease-specific instruments and PROMs for assessing disease activity and quality of life. Moreover, for many years, he has also played a leading role in the development and advancement of national and international guidelines for urticaria and angioedema, bringing more and more experts to the table. Among several other national and international awards, he was awardee of the prestigious EAACI Clemens Von Pirquet Award for Clinical Research in 2022 and APAACI Life Time Achievement Award in 2023. He was reviewer for most major national and international journals in the field of Allergy, Dermatology, and Immunology and served on the Editorial Boards of internationally highly respected journals like Allergy, Clinical and Experimental Allergy, Allergo Journal, Experimental Dermatology, WAO Journal and International Archives of Allergy and Immunology. In science, he was hard working and full of action publishing more than 800 original and review articles in peer reviewed journals with H-Index of 100 and a total impact factor of 5780 in addition to >50 books and book chapters. Aside from his outstanding academic achievements he had the unique ability to immediately connect to people and infect them with his endless enthusiasm for the world of mast cell related diseases. He was the driving force behind international networks like UCARE and the Global Urticaria Forum that managed to bring together experts from all over the world. In addition he very much cared about reaching out to patients, educating them about their disease, and improving their QoL. For this he used all available channels, embracing new technologies and platforms making him one of the first Tik Tokers in the field. Finally and most important of all, Marcus was a dear colleague, long-time companion and loyal friend to us characterized by his kind nature and his character strengths. His academic lectures reached cult status and we know of colleagues who traveled >2000 km to attend one of his lectures. Marcus was one of the most outstanding researcher, clinician, and academic teacher we have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He represented our profession in the best thinkable way. We lost him far too early and will always remember him fondly as highly respected scientist, gifted organizer, inspiring motivator, wonderful academic teacher, empathic doctor, outstanding colleague, and as a well reflected and warm hearted friend. European and global allergology has lost in him one of the best of its ranks. The circumstances of his death were dramatic and our thoughts are with his family and closest friends. We still can't believe it, are infinitely saddened and will always honor his memory. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.