Expert in: Molecular Genetics, Molecular Biology, Developmental Biology, Transgenic Mice, Virus-Host Interactions.

Dr. Arnheiter is a scientist emeritus at the National Institutes of Health in the USA and the editor of the journal Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research. He is a Swiss National and holds an MD from the University of Zürich. He first worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Immunology and Virology in Zürich and moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), NIH in 1981. There, he started as a Research Fellow, then a Fogarty International Fellow, and in 1988 became the Chief of the Viral Pathogenesis and in 1995 of the Mammalian Development section. In the early stages of his career, he studied the relationship between host genes and viruses, but then, upon a chance observation, his research focus changed from innate immunity to development. In 1993, his group discovered the now well-known melanocyte transcription factor MITF in the mouse. He has published widely both in virology/immunology and in developmental biology of melanocytes and retinal pigment epithelium cells.