Constantin E. Sekeris

Constantin E. Sekeris (born June 12, 1933 in Nafplio ; † September 15, 2009 in Thessaloniki ) was a Greek biochemist and molecular biologist .

life and work

Sekeris was born in Nafplio and went with his family to Egypt , South Africa and finally the United States during World War II , where his father held various ministerial positions in the Greek government in exile. After the liberation of Greece in 1944, the family returned to Greece. He completed his education at the 8th Gymnasium in Athens and graduated from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1956 . At the end of his two years of military service, he worked in a research group led by Peter Karlson at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , where he received his doctorate in 1962 .

In 1964 Karlson moved to the Philipps University in Marburg and took Sekeris there with him. In 1966 he was given a position as a private lecturer and in 1970 he became a scientific councilor and C3 professor . In 1974, Sekeris became the head of the “Molecular Biology of the Cell” section at Heidelberg University at the German Cancer Research Center .

In 1977 Sekeris went back to Greece and became Professor of Biochemistry in the Biological Faculty of the University of Athens. In 1993 he was appointed to a professorship at the Medical School and was also director of the Hellenic National Research Center . In 2000, Sekeris reached the mandatory retirement age of Greece, but continued research until his death from a heart attack in 2009.

research

Sekeris' main research focus was the mode of action of steroid hormones . He began his career studying the tyrosine metabolism of insects and then quickly moving on to molecular endocrinology . With Karlson he built on the work of Adolf Butenandt (Peter Karlsons father and director of the Institute in Munich), and proposed a model for steroid hormone functions before loosely on the model of Jacob and Monod for the regulation of the lactose operon of Escherichia coli based . After that, Sekeris focused on steroid receptors and, with his research group, described for the first time the binding of the glucocorticoid receptor to mitochondrial DNA .

In addition to his long-time director and managing director at the Hellenic National Research Center, Sekeris has worked in science administration both in Greece and abroad. He was a member of the Greek Research Council and was an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and the European Academy of Sciences .

Web links

Sekeris, Constantin. Hessian biography. (As of July 23, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Individual evidence

↑ P. Karlson, C. E. Sekeris: Mechanism of action of steroid hormones. German Medical Weekly 98 (16), 1973; Pp. 831-835.
↑ C. Demonacos, R. Djordjevic-Markovic, N. Tsawdaroglou, C. E .: The mitochondrion as a primary site of action of glucocorticoids: the interaction of the glucocorticoid receptor with mitochondrial DNA sequences showing partial similarity to the nuclear glucocorticoid responsive elements. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 55 (1); Pp. 43-55.

personal data
SURNAME	Sekeris, Constantin E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek biochemist and molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH	June 12, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nafplio
DATE OF DEATH	September 15, 2009
Place of death	Thessaloniki

[1] P. Karlson, C. E. Sekeris: Mechanism of action of steroid hormones. German Medical Weekly 98 (16), 1973; Pp. 831-835.

[2] C. Demonacos, R. Djordjevic-Markovic, N. Tsawdaroglou, C. E .: The mitochondrion as a primary site of action of glucocorticoids: the interaction of the glucocorticoid receptor with mitochondrial DNA sequences showing partial similarity to the nuclear glucocorticoid responsive elements. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 55 (1); Pp. 43-55.