Dr. Leutenegger graduated from the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zurich, in 1992, and went immediately to work with Professor Hans Lutz in the Clinical Laboratory, also at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zurich. In 1995, he completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (Dr.med.vet.) thesis, entitled 'Experimental Immunization against Feline Immunodeficiency Virus FIV'.

Having decided to persue a career in veterinary research, he embarked on a 1-year postgraduate course of 'Experimental Medicine' at the University of Zurich; in the same year he started his PhD at the Universities of Bern and Zurich. The title of his thesis was 'Feline Immunodeficiency Viurs: Experimental Vaccination, Cytokines and Chemokines', which he completed in 1998. At the same time he was working on his PhD, he worked as a Research Assistant in the Clinical Laboratory in the Departments for Internal Medicine and Veterinary Surgery, where he was responsible for the molecular biological aspects of experimental surgery. He was also a coordinator at the Center for Clinical Research during these years.

In 1999, he went to the University of California, Davis, USA, as a Visiting Researcher. Still there, his current project is looking at the use of simian and feline immunodeficiency viruses as research models for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); the project is focussed on experimental vaccination and therapy.

In the past, Dr. Leutenegger has been awarded research grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation, to study the effects of feline interleukin 16 (IL-16) on retroviral infections in the cat and the adjuvans effect of feline IL-12 in experimental DNA vaccines against Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV). This year (2000) he became a specialist in Veterinary Laboratory Medicine (FVH).

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