Dieter Oesterhelt

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Dieter Oesterhelt (born November 10, 1940 in Munich ) is a German biochemist .

Life

After graduating from the Theresien-Gymnasium in Munich in 1959, Oesterhelt studied chemistry at the University of Munich from 1959 to 1963 . From 1964 to 1967 he did his dissertation at the Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Munich under Feodor Lynen on the subject of the multi-enzyme complex of fatty acid synthetase from yeast . He then worked as a research assistant (post doc) at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Chemistry until 1969.

From 1969 to 1973 he worked as an academic advisor at the Institute for Biochemistry University of Munich and carried out work on the structure, function and biosynthesis of the purple membrane of halobacteria. In 1969/70 he completed a research stay with Walther Stoeckenius at the University of California, San Francisco, on the detection of vitamin A aldehyde and a rhodopsin-like protein ( bacteriorhodopsin ) in the membrane of Halobacterium salinarum .

In 1973 he completed his habilitation in Munich, in 1975 he was a junior research group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory in Tübingen and shortly thereafter received a call to the University of Würzburg .

From 1976 to 1979 he was a full professor at the University of Würzburg . Oesterhelt has been a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry , Martinsried , since 1980 . In 2008 he retired. Since then he has headed an emeritus research group at the MPI for Biochemistry.

Oesterhelt succeeded in detecting the rhodopsin-like protein bacteriorhodopsin in the cell membrane of Halobacterium . He was able to prove that bacteriorhodopsin contains the chromophore retinal (vitamin A aldehyde) and that the physiological function of bacteriorhodopsin is to pump protons out of the cell. The resulting proton gradient can be used by the ATP synthase to produce ATP . This discovered a previously unknown, very simple type of photosynthesis that differs from the photosynthesis of plants.

Awards and memberships (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Chronicle of the Kaiser Wilhelm, Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science: 1911–2011; Data and sources Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2011, ISBN 978-3-428-13623-0 , page 984
  2. ^ Oesterhelt's homepage at the MPI for Biochemistry, accessed November 19, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Oesterhelt, Dieter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich