Professor Dehio received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of Cologne in Germany. From 1993 to 1995, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. From 1995 to 2000, he was a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen, Germany. Since 2000, he has been a research group leader at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he holds the position of associate professor in molecular microbiology.

He received the Otto Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society in 1994; the Promotion Prize from the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology in 1999; the Postdoctoral Prize for Research in Microbiology, Immunology and Virology of the Robert Koch Foundation in 2000; the Pfizer Research Prize in the section Infectiology in 2006; and the Main Award of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology in 2006.

Christoph Dehio is conducting research on bacterial pathogens associated with the formation of tumors in humans. In particular, he is studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms that lead to the formation of vascular tumors by the bacterium Bartonella henselae.