Axel Ullrich

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Axel Ullrich (born October 19, 1943 in Lauban ) is a German biochemist . Until 2016 he was director of the department for molecular biology at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich . Ullrich cloned the insulin receptor , the EGF receptor and other growth factor receptors. He developed the humanized anti-EGFR antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin ® ) and the anti-angiogenesis blocker sunitinib (Sutent ® ), both cancer drugs.

education

Ullrich graduated from the Ludwig-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Rastatt and studied biochemistry at the University of Tübingen until 1971 . After graduating, he moved to Heidelberg University , where he received his doctorate in 1975 on the " Translation of virus-specific ribonucleic acids in homologous and heterologous cell-free systems".

Career history

In 1975 Ullrich went to the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California as a postdoc and research assistant . From 1979 he worked for the biotechnology company Genentech, which was founded in 1976 .

In 1988 he returned to Germany to become director of the department for molecular biology at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried.

Ullrich is also honorary professor at the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai and the University of Tübingen. In addition to his work in Munich, Ullrich has also been director of the Singapore Onco Genome Laboratory , a cooperation between the Max Planck Society and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A * STAR) in Singapore, since 2004 .

In addition to his academic work, Ullrich has founded five biotech companies so far: SUGEN ( S chlessinger and U llrich-Gen; founded in California in 1991, now part of Pfizer ), Axxima Pharmaceuticals (founded in Martinsried in 1998, now part of GPC Biotech (dissolved in 2013)) , U3 Pharma (also founded in Martinsried in 2001, taken over by the Japanese company Daiichi Sankyo in 2008 ), Kinaxo (also founded in Martinsried in 2005, taken over by Evotec AG in 2011 ) and NEO New Oncology (founded in Cologne in 2012, taken over by Siemens Healthineers in 2016).

Axel Ullrich retired at the end of October 2016.

Publications

His work includes more than 571 scientific publications and more than 50,000 citations.

Axel Ullrich Lecture and Axel Ullrich Medal

Since 2018, the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry has been holding the "Axel Ullrich Lecture" every autumn. The speakers receive the "Axel Ullrich Medal".

Awards

For his work and discoveries in the field of molecular signal transduction of cells and tumor biology, Axel Ullrich has received numerous awards:

He is also an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Academia Europaea (since 1991), the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina (since 2000) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2005).

Publications (selection)

  • Klaus Strebhardt, Axel Ullrich: Paul Ehrlich's magic bullet concept: 100 years of progress , in: Nature Reviews Cancer 8, 473-480 (June 2008) (overview of cancer therapeutics, also describes part of Ullrich's own work)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Overview of the Scientific Members of the Institute, accessed January 17, 2018
  2. ↑ see the MPI for Biochemistry page on the Axel Ullrich Lecture
  3. ↑ reception anl speech by the mayor. On the 66th birthday of honorary citizen Prof. Dr. Axel Ullrich ( PDF, 40 kB )
  4. ↑ Press release from Merck KGaA dated May 20, 2009
  5. ^ Membership directory: Axel Ullrich. Academia Europaea, accessed on July 24, 2017 (English, with biographical and other information).
  6. ↑ Member entry of Axel Ullrich (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 28, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Ullrich, Axel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Lauban