Control of Gene Expression

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Managing Director of the Max-Planck-Institut fuer Biochemie

EDUCATION:
• 1982 MD, University of Heidelberg
• 1985 Dr Med, University of Heidelberg, Laboratory of Prof H Schimassek at the Institute of Biochemistry
• 1990 Dr Med Habil, University of Munich, Institute of Physiological Chemistry, Chair of Prof W Neupert
• 1985-1986 Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Prof W Neupert at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry, University of Munich.
• 1989-1990 Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Prof W Wickner, University of California at Los Angeles, Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council)

HONORS AND AWARDS:
• 1985 Summa cum laude, University of Heidelberg
• 1994 Howard Hughes Appointment
• 1995 Appointment to William E Snee Chair of Cellular Biochemistry at Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York
• 1996 Vinci Award, LVMH Science for Art competition
• 1997 Lipmann Award of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• 1997 Honorary Professor, University of Munich
• 1997 Foreign Member of the Academy of Science of Nordrhein-Westfalen
• 1998 EMBO Member
• 1999 Academy Prize of the Academy of Science of Berlin-Brandenburg
• 2000 Wilhelm Valliant Research Prize
• 2000 Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 2002 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council)
• 2002 Member Leopoldina, German Academy of Sciences
• 2003 Feldberg Prize
• 2004 Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
• 2004 Gairdner Foundation International Award, Canada
• 2005 Ernst Jung-Prize for Medicine
• 2006 Stein and Moore Award of the Protein Society
• 2006 Koerber European Science Award
• 2007 Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences
• 2008 Lewis S Rosenstiel Award
• 2008 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
• 2008 Honorary Member, Japanese Biochemical Society
• 2009 Otto Warburg Medal of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM)
• 2010 Election to AAAS Fellow
• 2010 van Gysel Prize for Biomedical Research in Europe – 2009
• 2010 The Twenty-Seventh Annual Cynthia Ann Chan Memorial Lecture, University of California, Berkeley
• 2010 The Dr HP Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Our research activities are focused on two major areas:
1. Deciphering the mechanisms and pathways of chaperone-assisted protein folding in the cytosol, and
2. Understanding how aberrant protein folding is linked with neurodegenerative diseases.