Cell Adhesion

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor and Head of Department, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION:
• Medical studies and doctorate at the University of Innsbruck (1981)
• Trained as a general practitioner (1982-1984)
• Doctor in the Department of Functional Pathology, University of Innsbruck (1984-1988)
• Postdoc at the Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, USA (1988-1992 )
• Head of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Salzburg (1992-1993)
• Group Leader Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (1993-1998)
• Professor and Head of the Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Lund, Sweden (1998-2001)
• Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany (since 2001)

MEMBERSHIPS and awards:
• President of the German Society for Cell Biology (since 2008)
• Member of the DFG Fachkollegiats Cell Biology (since 2008)
• Herrmann and Lilly-shilling Professor (1995)
• Member of EMBO (2000)
• Göran Gustafsson-Prize (2001)
• Corresponding member of the Österreichsiches Academy of Sciences (2008)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Our work is addressing the role of integrin-mediated adhesion and signalling during physiological situations such as development and tissue repair and pathological situations such as inflammation, ischemic injury, tumor formation and metastasis. To reach this goal we alter integrin functions in vivo using genetically altered mice. In particular we modify the signalling properties of integrins by introducing site-specific mutations into integrins, by deleting and modifying signalling molecules that transduce integrin signals and connect integrins to actin and growth factor signalling pathways.