Axel Thomas Brünger

Axel Thomas Brünger , English Brunger, (born November 25, 1956 in Leipzig ) is a German-American biologist and crystallographer . He is a professor at Stanford University .

Brünger studied physics and mathematics at the University of Hamburg and graduated in 1980 with a diploma in physics. He then went to the Technical University of Munich , where he received his doctorate in biophysics with Klaus Schulten in 1982 . As a post-doctoral student , he was with Martin Karplus at Harvard University in 1982/83 and in 1984 with Dieter Oesterhelt and Robert Huber at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry . From 1985 to 1987 he was again at Harvard with Martin Karplus. In 1987 he became an Assistant Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and also conducted research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). In 1991 he became an Associate Professor and in 1993 Professor at Yale. In 2000 he became Professor of Molecular and Cell Physiology at Stanford University . From 2013 he headed the Department of Molecular and Cell Physiology.

He deals with computer simulation of macromolecules, structure determination with X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy and in biology with the transmission of neuronal signals, vesicle transport to the cell membrane and fusion with the cell membrane in SNARE complexes, especially at synapses (exocytosis when neurotransmitters are released). Together with colleagues, he succeeded in elucidating the structure of the snare complex , consisting of syntaxin-1, synaptobrevin (which are also part of the vesicles) and two SNAP-25 helices.

In X-ray structure analysis, he developed methods that made the structure determination of proteins possible even for non-experts and that automated them. The methods used simulated annealing (programs X-PLOR, CNS). The publication on CNS is one of the most frequently cited works. He also introduced the free R-value as a criterion for the correctness of a molecular model compared to the X-ray diffraction data.

In 1995 he received the Röntgen Prize in Würzburg, in 2003 the Gregori Aminoff Prize of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, in 2011 the DeLano Award of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, in 2014 the Carl Hermann Medal , and in 2014 the Bernard Katz Award of the Biophysical Society and the 2016 Trueblood Award from the American Crystallographic Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005).

From 2009 to 2015 he was on the editorial board of the Biophysical Journal.

Brünger (Brunger) is a US citizen.

Fonts

• Q.Zhou, Y.Lai, T.Bacaj, M.Zhao, AYLyubimov, M.Uervirojnangkoorn, OBZeldin, ASBrewster, NKSauter, AECohen, SMSoltis, R.Alonso-Mori, M.Chollet, HTLemke, RAPfuetzner, UBChoi, WIWeis J.Diao, TCSudhof, ATBrunger, Architecture of the synaptotagmin-SNARE machinery for neuronal exocytosis. Nature 525: 62-67 (2015).
• M.Zhao, S.Wu, Q.Zhou, S.Vivona, DJCipriano, Y.Cheng, ATBrunger. Mechanistic insights into the recycling machine of the SNARE complex. Nature 518: 61-67 (2015).
• GFSchroeder, M.Levitt, ATBrunger, Super-resolution biomolecular crystallography with low-resolution data. Nature 464: 1218-1222 (2010).
• MABreidenbach, AT Brunger, Substrate recognition strategy for botulinum neurotoxin serotype A, Nature 432 925-929 (2004).
• RBSutton, D. Fasshauer, R. Jahn, AT Brunger. Crystal structure of a SNARE complex involved in synaptic exocytosis at 2.4 A resolution. Nature 395: 347-353 (1998).
• ATBrunger, PDAdams, GMClore, WLDeLano, P.Gros, RWGrosse-Kunstleve, J.-S.Jiang, J.Kuszewski, M.Nilges, NSPannu, RJRead, LMRice, T.Simonson, GLWarren, Crystallography & NMR system (CNS) : A new software system for macromolecular structure determination, Acta Cryst. D 54, 905-921 (1998).
• FT Burling, WI Weis, KM Flaherty, and AT Brunger, Direct observation of protein solvation and discrete disorder with experimental crystallographic phases, Science 271, 72-77 (1996).
• AT Brunger, The free R value: a novel statistical quantity for assessing the accuracy of crystal structures, Nature 355, 472-474 (1992).
• AT Brunger, J. Kuriyan, M. Karplus, Crystallographic R factor refinement by molecular dynamics, Science 235: 458-460 (1987).

Web links

• Brunger Lab