The CRONIC-PPF Faculty

	Nikolaus KNEIDINGER Univ.-Prof. Dr. biol. hom. Dr. med. univ. (PhD) Pattern or disease: unraveling usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) by multi-omics and AI
Head Division of Pulmonology, Full Professor of Medicine Division of Pulmonology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 15, 8036 Graz Phone: +43-316-385 12183, ✉ e-mail WWW: Forschungsportal Med Uni Graz ORCID: 0000-0001-7583-0453 PubMed: PubMed (nih.gov)
• Profile      • Curriculum vitae     • Publications

Nikolaus Kneidinger serves as Head of the Department of Pulmonology at the Med Uni Graz and leads a research group focused on interstitial lung diseases and lung transplantation. In 2024, he was appointed Professor of Medicine and became speaker of the Lung Research Cluster at the Med Uni Graz. He has a particular interest in integrating well-defined clinical patient cohorts and samples with innovative large-scale analytical approaches. Recently, his work has included applying machine learning techniques of object detection in respiratory diagnostics. As coordinator of the CRONIC-PPF project, Nikolaus Kneidinger will oversee the clinical cohorts and manage the biobank within the Lung Research Cluster.

Project

Research interests

1. Nikolaus Kneidinger’s research interests are broad and comprise different clinical and translational areas. The scientific focus is on phenotyping chronic lung disease by pursuing modern and innovative techniques. Together with his research group, Nikolaus Kneidinger had the chance to contribute to several topics in the journey of lung transplantation, from candidate selection, immunosuppressive regimens to long-term outcome of transplant recipients. (selection: Kneidinger et al., 2017 [↗]; Veit et al., 2019 [↗]; Leuschner et al., 2929 [↗]; Gerckens et al., 2025 [↗])
2. Next to lung transplantation Nikolaus Kneidinger is deeply involved in the care of patients with interstitial lung diseases, from establishing the diagnosis to managing in the multidisciplinary discussion to long-term management of affected individuals. (selection: Leuschner et al., 2016 [↗]; Leuschner et al., 2020 [↗]; Behr et al., 2021 [↗]; Stoltefuß et al., 2024 [↗])
3. Currently, Nikolaus Kneidinger and his group developed a machine learning model for automatized bronchoalveolar lavage fluid differential cell count. Furthermore, morphology of BAL cells is currently assessed in several cohorts of patients with interstitial lung diseases and correlated with diagnostic and prognostic outcomes (in preparation).

03.04.2026 CRONIC-PPF · Doctoral Programme “Clinical & Research Oriented Network for Innovative Classification of Progressive Pulmonary Fibrosis”