Horst Kleinkauf

Horst Kleinkauf (2009)

Horst Kleinkauf (born November 13, 1930 in Goslar ; † May 3, 2020 ) was a German biochemist and molecular biologist .

Education and career

After graduating from the municipal high school for boys with high school, Goslar, today Ratsgymnasium Goslar , Horst Kleinkauf studied at the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina in Braunschweig and passed state exams in pharmacy and food chemistry. He continued to study botany there and was awarded a doctorate rerum naturalium. After working on deciphering the genetic code at Max Planck Institutes in Tübingen and Göttingen, he completed his habilitation at the Technical University of Braunschweig .

From 1967 to 1971 Kleinkauf worked at Rockefeller University , New York, in the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Fritz Lipmann , where he started a new research area, the “non-ribosomal biosynthesis of peptides”.

In 1971, Kleinkauf was appointed full professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Technical University of Berlin . In the 1970s he was department spokesman for the Faculty of Physical and Applied Chemistry and a member of the council of the Technical University of Berlin. From 1979 to 1992, Kleinkauf headed the special research area he founded for the German Research Foundation “Structure, function and biosynthesis of peptides and proteins”.

International positions and activities

Kleinkauf was involved in the organization of international scientific events. In 1986 he was chairman of the organizational and scientific program committee for the “17th FEBS Meeting "(FEBS = Federation of European Biochemical Societies ) in Berlin. From 1988 to 1996 Kleinkauf was FEBS Meetings Counselor and was involved in all major international scientific events in these scientific areas in Europe. From 1991 to 1998, Kleinkauf was General Secretary of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB).

The IUBMB is dedicated to promoting research and education in biochemistry and molecular biology in the world. It does this in a number of ways. It provides financial support for international symposia for biochemical and molecular biological scientific areas of current interest. The IUBMB holds training courses, symposiums, seminars on biochemical and molecular biological training and distributes textbooks to training institutions and developing countries. The Union also awards grants.

From 1996 to 1999 Kleinkauf was Germany's representative on the “General Committee of the International Council of Scientific Unions” (ICSU) and from 1999 to 2002 Vice-President for External Relations on the ICSU Executive Board for the “International Council for Science”.

The International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) was founded in 1931 to support international scientific activities in the various branches of science and their application for the benefit of mankind. In 1998, the name was changed to The International Council for Science because ICSU has two categories of members: National Scientific Members (scientific academies and scientific organizations) and the national multidisciplinary organizations such as scientific unions that represent international disciplinary branches of science. The combination of these two groups results in a broad spectrum of scientific experience, which enables members to work on and answer crucial international and interdisciplinary scientific questions.

Memberships

Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (since 1985)
Foreign member of the Medical Faculty of the Polish Academy of Learning (PAU) in Krakow
Member of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) / American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
Honorary member of the Kitasato Institute of the Kitasato University Tokyo ( Kitasato Gakuen )

Awards

Heyrovský Medal in Gold from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences , Prague.
Prize of the S. Kitasato Institute and the S. Kitasato University, Tokyo for “Research on New Bioactive Chemical Compounds”.
24. FEBS -Ferdinand Springer Lecturer.
Diploma d´Honneur of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies .

Research priorities

Horst Kleinkauf deals intensively with the biochemistry of peptides and the biosynthesis of biologically active peptides. Another focus is the enzymology of multifunctional enzymes. Furthermore, he deals with the isolation and characterization of peptide synthetases of the biosynthetic pathways of peptide antibiotics, ion carriers, fungicides, insecticides and immunosuppressive substances. Kleinkauf carried out work on the synthesis of gramicidin S, tyrocidine, and alamethicine and deals with the elucidation of the biosynthesis of the depsipeptides enniatin and beauvericin and the biosynthetic pathway of the immunosuppressive substance cyclosporine . In addition, his research focuses on the enzymatic production of analogues for drug improvement and new applications. He did a lot of work on ACV synthetase (aminoadipyl-cysteinyl-D-valine synthetase), the first enzyme in the biosynthesis of penicillin and cephalosporin.

Fonts

Peptide Antibiotics - Biosynthesis and Function. Walter de Gruyter & Co. Berlin / New York 1982.
with H. von Döhren, H. Dornauer and G. Nesemann: Regulation of Secondary Metabolite Formation. Workshop Conference Hoechst, Volume 16, VCH-Verlagsgesellschaft, Weinheim 1986.
with H. von Döhren and L. Jaenicke: The Roots of Modern Biochemistry, Fritz Lipmann's Squiggle and its Consequences. Verlag Walter de Gruyter Berlin / New York 1988.
with H. von Döhren: 50 Years of Penicillin Application, History and Trends. PUBLIC.Ltd, Czech Republic 1991, ISBN 80-901640-0-5 .
with H. von Döhren (Ed.): Products of Secondary Metabolism. (= Biotechnology. Volume 7). 2nd Edition. VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, Weinheim 1996, ISBN 3-527-28317-X .

Web links

Literature by and about Horst Kleinkauf in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f TU Berlin - Media information No. 234-27. October 1997. Horst Kleinkauf, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the TU Berlin, elected member of the American Society for Microbiology. (on-line)
↑ Obituary notice
↑ ^a ^b TU Berlin - Media Information No. 139-2. October 1995. Honor for Prof. Dr. Horst Kleinkauf from the TU Berlin. (on-line)
^ Catalog of the German National Library: Further information. (on-line)
^ Horst Feldmann: Four Decades of FEBS. In: Acta Biochimica Polonica. Vol. 51, No. 2/2004 ( Online ; PDF; 676 kB)
↑ Member entry of Horst Kleinkauf at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on April 11, 2015.
^ Members of the PAU - Department V: Medicine. Polska Akademia Umiejętności, accessed June 15, 2017 (Polish).
^ News from Chemistry, Technology and Laboratory, Vol. 38: Personalnachrichten. 1990, pp. 766-770. doi : 10.1002 / nadc.19900380624 (currently unavailable)
^ T-Space, University of Toronto: SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL Newsletter No. 63 December 1996
↑ Horst Kleinkauf, Henk van Liempt, Harriet Palissa, Hans von Döhren: Biosynthesis of peptides: A non-ribosomal system. In: Natural Sciences. 79, 1992, pp. 153-162. doi : 10.1007 / BF01134432 .

personal data
SURNAME	Small purchase, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German biochemist and molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH	November 13, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH	Goslar
DATE OF DEATH	May 3, 2020

[Medieninformation234-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f TU Berlin - Media information No. 234-27. October 1997. Horst Kleinkauf, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the TU Berlin, elected member of the American Society for Microbiology. (on-line)

[2] Obituary notice

[Medieninformation139-3] TU Berlin - Media Information No. 139-2. October 1995. Honor for Prof. Dr. Horst Kleinkauf from the TU Berlin. (on-line)

[d-nb-4] Catalog of the German National Library: Further information. (on-line)

[Feldmann-5] Horst Feldmann: Four Decades of FEBS. In: Acta Biochimica Polonica. Vol. 51, No. 2/2004 ( Online ; PDF; 676 kB)

[Leopoldina-6] Member entry of Horst Kleinkauf at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on April 11, 2015.

[7] Members of the PAU - Department V: Medicine. Polska Akademia Umiejętności, accessed June 15, 2017 (Polish).

[Personalnachrichten-8] News from Chemistry, Technology and Laboratory, Vol. 38: Personalnachrichten. 1990, pp. 766-770. doi : 10.1002 / nadc.19900380624 (currently unavailable)

[T-Space-9] T-Space, University of Toronto: SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL Newsletter No. 63 December 1996

[Biosynthese_von_Peptiden-10] Horst Kleinkauf, Henk van Liempt, Harriet Palissa, Hans von Döhren: Biosynthesis of peptides: A non-ribosomal system. In: Natural Sciences. 79, 1992, pp. 153-162. doi : 10.1007 / BF01134432 .