From 2004 to 2008 Detlev Ganten was chief executive officer at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the joint medical faculty of the Free University and Humboldt University of Berlin. He is now the chair of the board of the Charité Foundation. As a research scientist in the field of hypertension, Ganten elucidated fundamental mechanisms of the pathophysiology and molecular biology of high blood pressure. His area of research includes the hormonal regulation of blood pressure, especially the renin-angiotensin system, and the molecular genetics of cardiovascular diseases and evolutionary medicine. He has held faculty and management positions at the University of Heidelberg, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, and the Benjamin Franklin Medical Center of the Free University of Berlin.