Speer studied medicine at the University of Göttingen. In 1977 he was licensed as a physician and received his doctorate.[2] He began his residency at the University Children's Hospital Göttingen in 1978 and continued his scientific training at the National Jewish Hospital and Research Center, Denver/Colorado from 1982 to 1983. In 1987, he received a professorship in pediatrics at the University of Göttingen and was appointed professor and director of the Department of Neonatology at the Children's Hospital of the University Hospital of Tübingen in 1994. In 1999, he accepted an appointment as Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the University Children's Hospital in Würzburg and worked in this capacity until his retirement in 2020.[3][4] Currently, Speer is a senior professor at the Medical Faculty of Würzburg.[1]
After basic work on the immune defense of newborns and the early detection of neonatal systemic infections,[5][6] Speer became part of the inner circle of the "European Collaborative Study Group on Surfactant Replacement" around Professors Bengt Robertson and Tore Curstedt, both Stockholm as well as Henry L. Halliday, Belfast. Since that time he has been working on the clinical optimization of surfactant treatmentofpremature infants with respiratory distress syndrome;[7][8] this therapy represents a milestone in neonatal medicine and has dramatically reduced the mortality of premature infants. In 1993, his research group succeeded in identifying a complex inflammatory response in the airways and lungs of preterm infants,[9][10][11] which can progress into a chronic lung disease of preterm infants, the bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). These findings have opened the way for various anti-inflammatory therapeutic strategies. In addition to his experimental work on the etiopathogenesis of BPD, Speer's scientific work has focused on the role of pre- and postnatal infections of premature infants with cytomegaloviruses and ureaplasmas, among others.[12][13][14]
A variety of other activities describe Speer's scientific involvement: he is "joint Editor-in-Chief" of the journal "Neonatology",[15] co-editor of the "Zeitschrift für Geburtshilfe und Neonatologie"[16] and he has served on numerous editorial boards of international scientific journals and scientific societies. He was secretary of the "Working Group on Neonatology" of the "European Society for Pediatric Research" and president of the "European Association of Perinatal Medicine."[17] In 2021, he was appointed "co-director" of the "Permanent School of Perinatal, Neonatal and Reproductive Medicine (PREIS School)" in Florence.[18]
Speer is a speaker at numerous congresses and symposia in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and South Africa. In addition, he has regularly organized the international symposium "Recent Advances in Neonatal Medicine" since 1996.[19] In spring 2016, he organized together with Prof. Bo Sun Shanghai the international congress "The Neonate - An International Symposium for Asia" in Shanghai, China, for the first time, and the second edition in 2018.[20]
Speer published more than 340 scientific papers in international and national journals and is the author of several book chapters on acute and chronic pulmonary diseases of premature and newborn infants.[22][23][24][25] Furthermore, he is co-editor of the textbook "Pädiatrie", since 1999, the 5th edition was published by Springer-Verlag in 2019.[26][27]
^"Speer im Ruhestand". Julius Maximilian Universität Würzburg. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
^M. Gahr (2012). Zum 60. Geburtstag von Herrn Prof. Dr. med. Christian Speer. Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde, Volume 160, Heft 8, August 2012, Seite 808.
^Speer CP, Pabst M, Hedegaard HB, Rest RF, Johnston RB. Enhanced release of oxygen metabolites by monocyte-derived macrophages exposed to proteolytic enzymes:activity of neutrophil elastase and cathepsin G. J Immunol 1984;133:2151-2156.
^Speer CP, Ninjo A, Gahr M. Elastase-α1-proteinase inhibitor in early diagnosis of neonatal septicemia. J Pediatr 1986;108:987-990.
^Speer CP, Robertson B, Curstedt T, Halliday HL, Compagnone D, Gefeller O, Harms K, Herting E, McClure G, Reid M et al. Randomized European multicenter trial of surfactant replacement therapy for severe neonatal respiratory distress syndrome: Single versus multiple doses of Curosurf. Pediatrics 1992;89:13-20.
^Sweet DG, Turner M, Stranak Z, Plavka R, Clarke P, Stenson B, Singer D, Goelz R, Fabbri L, Varoli G, Piccinno A, Santoro D, Speer CP. A first-in-human clinical study of a new SP-B and SP-C enriched synthetic surfactant (CHF 5633) in preterm babies with respiratory distress syndrome. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2017;102(6):F497-F503.
^Groneck P, Reuss D, Götze-Speer B, Speer CP. Effects of dexamethasone on chemotactic activity and inflammatory mediators in tracheobronchial aspirates of preterm infants at risk for chronic lung disease. J Pediatr 1993;122(6):938-944.
^Speer CP, Reuß D, Harms K, Herting E, Gefeller O. Neutrophil elastase and acute pulmonary damage in infants with severe respiratory distress syndrome. Pediatrics 1993;91:794-799.
^Groneck P, Götze-Speer B, Oppermann M, Eiffert H, Speer CP. Association of pulmonary inflammation and increased microvascular permeability during the development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia: a sequential analysis of inflammatory mediators in respiratory fluids of high risk preterm infants. Pediatrics 1994;93:712-718.
^Hamprecht K, Maschmann J, Vochem M, Dietz K, Speer CP, Jahn G. Epidemiology of postnatal mother-to-preterm-child transmission of cytomegalovirus by breastfeeding. Lancet 2001;357: 513-518.
^Kunzmann S, Speer CP, Jobe AH, Kramer BW. Antenatal inflammation induced TGF-β1 but suppressed CTGF in preterm lungs. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol, 2007;292:L223-L231.
^Glaser K, Fehrholz M, Henrich B, Claus H, Papsdorf M, Speer CP. Anti-inflammatory effects of the new generation synthetic surfactant CHF5633 on Ureaplasma-induced cytokine responses in human monocytes. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2017;15:181-189.
^Simeoni, U., Visser, G. H. A., & Halliday, H. L. (2014). Maternité Prize of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine. Laudatio for Christian P. Speer, MD, FRCPE Professor of Pediatrics. Zeitschrift für Geburtshilfe und Neonatologie, 218(4), 177–178. doi:10.1055/s-0034-1384585
^Speer CP: Role of Inflammation in the Pathogenesis of Acute and Chronic Neonatal Lung Disease. In: Bancalari E (Ed): The Newborn Lung: Neonatology Questions and Controversies, Saunders Elsevier, Philadelphia, 166-186 (2008).
^Speer CP: Inflammatory Mechanisms in Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. In: Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia, Abman SH (Ed.) Informa Healthcare, New York, 133-145 (2010).
^Speer CP, Gahr M, Dötsch J: Pädiatrie, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: 2019. ISBN 978-3-662-57295-5
^"Pädiatrie". Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
