Christian Ries obtained his PhD in Biology from the Technical University of Munich in 1994 studying the role of metalloproteinase secretion in leukemic cells. He pursued his doctoral and postdoctoral time within the Molecular Medicine lab of  Petro E. Petrides at the University Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilians University. In 1999 he joined  the Department of Clinical Chemistry and Biochemistry under the direction of Hans Fritz and Marianne Jochum as a principal investigator and assistant professor.

He was appointed as a Professor in Clinical Biochemistry at the University Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilians University within Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention in 2012. The research of Christian Ries focuses on molecular mechanisms regulating the biology of migrating cells in pathological and physiological settings such as atherosclerosis, cancer, and wound healing.