Karin Mölling

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Karin Mölling , often quoted as Moelling (born April 7, 1943 in Meldorf , Dithmarschen ), is a German virologist who deals in particular with HIV . Among other things, she was professor and director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the University of Zurich (1993–2008) and research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin (1976–1993). She has been retired since 2008 .

Life

Mölling, daughter of an ENT doctor , went to high school in Eutin and studied physics and mathematics at the University of Kiel and the University of Göttingen , with the physics diploma in 1968 in Kiel at the Institute for Nuclear Physics. Then she changed her research area and studied biochemistry and molecular biology from 1968 to 1969 as a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation at the University of California, Berkeley . Mölling in 1972 at the Max Planck Institute for Virus Research (or University of Tübingen) in Tübingen doctorate (research into the mechanism of replication of RNA tumor viruses). She then worked at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin (1972 to 1975), at the Institute for Virology at the University of Gießen and from 1976 as a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, where she stayed until 1993. In 1983 she became a professor. 1977 habilitation they are in biophysics in Giessen (via replication of retroviruses). From 1992 to 1994 she was director of cell and molecular biology at the US biotech company Apollon Inc. (a spin-off from Centocor in Pennsylvania). From 1993 she was Professor of Virology and Director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the University of Zurich. She was also head of virus diagnostics at the University Hospital in Zurich. In 2008 she retired ; from 2008 to 2010 she was a visiting scientist at the University of Zurich and at the MPI for Molecular Genetics in Berlin.

plant

Mölling has been researching AIDS since the 1980s. She conducted clinical studies for vaccination with HIV-DNA plasmids (with the companies Apollon and Centocor in Zurich) and developed a new type of AIDS therapy in which the ribonuclease H of the virus is applied. This is used by the retroviruses to cut up excess RNA. In her group, Mölling developed artificial, loop-shaped pieces of DNA (hairpin looped DNA) that couple to the viral RNA before it is transcribed into the cell DNA. The coupled DNA-RNA complexes are then cut by the ribonuclease. She had her first successes in 2007 in the mouse model, when the artificial pieces of DNA were injected immediately after infection.

Mölling discovered the ribonuclease H (RNase H) as a component of reverse transcriptase in a retrovirus from birds (dissertation 1972).

She also did significant research on oncogenes , isolating the cancer gene MYC and characterizing it as a transcription factor . They also took with colleagues discovered a circa 1983 proto-oncogene corresponding Raf - kinase , a chemical messenger in cells. She found that Raf not only plays a role in cell growth, but also, for example, in the differentiation of cells, whereby the interaction with protein kinase B (Akt) plays a role in the different effects.

COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 (Corona virus) pandemic , Mölling attracted attention through an interview with Radio Eins on March 14, 2020, in which she stated that Corona is not a serious killer virus; scaremongering is the problem. On a danger scale from 1 to 10, she would only rate the virus at 3 to 4. The deaths officially reported at the time (eight according to the report by the Robert Koch Institute on March 14 in Germany, corresponding to a lethality of 0.2 percent) are out of proportion to the measures taken or planned. Of the 2,000 to 3,000 in Germany in 2020 (to March 14) to influenza dead no one would speak, and not by the 25,000 dead of the influenza epidemic in Germany two years earlier. Radio Eins distanced itself from it in a statement: Mölling took an individual opinion, disregarded certain facts, and their offsetting with other deaths was cynical. The editors apologized for the impression that they were being played down.

Mölling also took part in the television program “ Phoenix Runde ” on March 17, 2020 with the topic “The corona crisis - Are the measures enough?”, In which she reiterated her opinion that the government’s measures were greatly exaggerated. Due to the extrapolated death rates, which would be exceeded by other pathogens (influenza, multi- resistant germs ), there is no reason to quarantine the entire population . The published numbers on the pandemic are incomplete. She promises a higher effect and protection of the common good, only to protect the risk groups (to which she also belongs) through isolation.

In an interview that appeared on YouTube on March 22, 2020, she again called for herd immunity and spoke out against curfews, especially for children and adolescents in Germany. In an interview with KenFM on March 24, 2020, she partially corrected herself and said no to Ken Jebsen's question whether she supported herd immunization: This was “an ancient principle of vaccination”. But it is “today an ethically very dubious matter because people are basically being let into the knife. You let them become infected and hope that they will then build up antibodies . ”Such hopes were also partly had with HIV . “Those are the helpless reactions because you have to try to do something. Herd immunization is being discussed in Holland and […] also in Sweden […] And Mr Johnson no longer uses the word (herd immunity) because it naturally provoked a vehement defensive reaction. ”But“ decision-makers ”should not“ run into open knives ” and let yourself be infected. That is of course a risky thing ”.

She also believes that curfews do not protect people in any way by preventing them from becoming infected. "But I am of the opinion that we also have good protective measures for the elderly [...] Perhaps the curfew should be reduced for young people [...]" She said that this was in line with pandemic plans for alleged forced vaccinations, for example in Denmark could have a justification if it were very serious infectious diseases . In this context, she believes that such measures will be refrained from in the case of COVID-19, since this disease does not kill everyone it hits, such as the plague . You could not explain the SARS-CoV-2 exceptional states compared to the 1.5 million deaths worldwide in 2018, because at that time no such measures were thought of. An unknown quantity must be involved and / or it may also be a communication problem. She is very worried about the economic consequences of the overreactions. “What is known worldwide: This disease is not as bad as, for example, a fulminant flu.” Shortly afterwards, she put this assessment into perspective and said of the COVID-19 pandemic that she was surprised by the development and extent of the epidemic and did not want any give more political recommendations.

In July 2020, she said in an interview with the Basler Zeitung that her earlier comparisons with the flu were wrong: “There is an important difference that I overlooked when I first assessed the disease in March. [...] At this stage I was not aware that many corona patients were threatened with suffocation. At that time, it was not known that patients would have to be in intensive care for up to six weeks between life and death, hooked up to the ventilator and artificially put into a coma. This long, extremely intensive care period, these various organ failures are a fundamental difference to influenza. Now it has recently been shown that what is healthy take months to recover. "

Honors

Memberships

Private

Mölling sails and plays the organ (C-exam as an organist ). She is the great-great-granddaughter of the important German architect Gottfried Semper , who built the Semperoper in Dresden, the main ETH building in Zurich and the town hall in Winterthur . She studies her family history extensively and published a book on the subject in 2019.

Fonts

Books:

Audio CD:

  • Karin Mölling tells: The life of viruses. Concept / Direction: Klaus Sander. Supposé, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-932513-90-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Topic of the diploma thesis with Erich Bagge and Joachim Trümper was asymmetry of cosmic rays from the Crab Nebula .
  2. ↑ Research as a service to people. In: Website of the MPI for Molecular Genetics. January 24, 2018, accessed March 25, 2020 .
  3. ↑ It is mentioned, for example, in this Spiegel article of April 28, 1986 about German AIDS research.
  4. ↑ She is the editor of the book Viral DNA Vaccines. Karger, Basel et al. 2001, ISBN 3-8055-7173-9 .
  5. ↑ K. Matzen, L. Elzaouk, AA Matskevich, A. Nitzsche, J. Heinrich, K. Moelling: RNase H-mediated retrovirus destruction in vivo triggered by oligodeoxynucleotides. In: Nature Biotechnology . Volume 25, Number 6, June 2007, pp. 669-674, doi : 10.1038 / nbt1311 , PMID 17546028 .
  6. ↑ P. Donner, I. Greiser-Wilke, K. Moelling: Nuclear localization and DNA binding of the transforming gene product of avian myelocytomatosis virus. In: Nature . Volume 296, Number 5854, March 1982, pp. 262-269, doi : 10.1038 / 296262a0 , PMID 6278322 .
  7. ↑ K. Moelling, B. Heimann, P. Beimling, UR Rapp, T. Sander: Serine- and threonine-specific protein kinase activities of purified gag-mil and gag-raf proteins. In: Nature . Volume 312, Number 5994, 1984 Dec 6-12, pp. 558-561, doi : 10.1038 / 312558a0 , PMID 6438534 .
  8. ↑ S. Zimmermann, K. Moelling: Phosphorylation and regulation of Raf by Akt (protein kinase B). In: Science. Volume 286, 1999, pp. 1741-1744 ( abstract ).
  9. ↑ Virologist Mölling warns of scare tactics. Radio Eins, March 14, 2020, accessed on March 15, 2020 .
  10. ↑ The corona crisis - are the measures sufficient? Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
  11. ↑ SARS-Corona 2: "We need herd immunity and not a curfew". YouTube video, March 22, 2020, accessed May 5, 2020.
  12. ^ On corona virology: Prof. Karin Mölling. KenFM on the phone (54 min), March 24, 2020, accessed on May 5, 2020.
  13. ↑ Interview with virologist: "A second wave can be avoided - at least until winter". BaZ Sunday newspaper, July 12, 2020.
  14. ↑ Research as a service to people . January 24, 2018.
  15. ↑ Awarded the Berlin State Order. In: Berlin.de. Press and Information Office of the State of Berlin, September 27, 2018, accessed on September 28, 2018 .
  16. ↑ https://suppose.de/produkt/viren/
personal data
SURNAME Mölling, Karin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moelling, Karin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German virologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Meldorf