Professor Karim Nayernia is an alumnus of the University of Göttingen, where he had defended his dissertation in 1993. He worked at the university until 2006, when he started to work at the Newcastle University. In 2003, he got the professorship (Habilitation) in Molecular Human Genetics from Medical Faculty of Georg-August University in Göttingen. His professorship thesis focused on molecular genetics of germ cell tumors.   In 2006, he was appointed as Chairman and Professor for Stem Cell Biology at the Newcastle University Institute of Human Genetics.