She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. She received her PhD in 2011 from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Munich, Institute for Molecular Immunology, where she conducted her doctoral work under the supervision of Professor Dolores J. Schendel. Professor Spranger completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago in the laboratory of Professor Thomas F. Gajewski. During this period, she was supported by a German Research Foundation postdoctoral fellowship and subsequently received the Cancer Research Institute's Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowship. Spranger is currently is a Scholar of the William Guy Forbeck Research Foundation and holds the Howard S. and Linda B. Stern Career Development Professorship.