Martin Zenke
Martin Zenke (born August 7, 1953 in Korbach ) is a German biochemist and cell biologist. He is a university lecturer and scientist in the field of stem cell research and biomedical engineering and teaches at RWTH Aachen University .
Life
Martin Zenke attended the Alte Landesschule Korbach and graduated from high school in 1972. From 1972 to 1978 he studied chemistry , biochemistry and medicine at the University of Marburg (diploma 1978, Ribonucleotide reduction in synchronous cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast) ).
From 1979 to 1982 Martin Zenke was a research assistant (doctoral candidate) at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg at the Institute for Virus Research in Gerhard Sauer's DNA Tumor Viruses department. He received his PhD in 1982 at the University of Heidelberg to the Dr. rer. nat. on the subject of transcription of SV40 chromatin . From 1982 to 1985 Martin Zenke worked as a postdoc with Pierre Chambon at the Université Louis Pasteur and at the Laboratoire de Genetique Moleculaire des Eucaryotes (LGME) in Strasbourg . In 1985 he moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory ( EMBL ) in Heidelberg and worked in the department of Thomas Graf and Hartmut Beug until 1988 .
From 1988 to 1995 Martin Zenke was a junior scientist at the Institute for Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna. In 1992 he completed his habilitation in molecular genetics at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Vienna .
From 1995 to 2003 Martin Zenke was head of department at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin . In 2003 he followed the call of founding director of the Institute for Biomedical Technologies, Chair of Cell Biology, Medical Faculty of RWTH Aachen University. Martin Zenke has been a member of the Central Ethics Commission for Stem Cell Research (ZES) in Berlin since 2008, and from 2011 to 2014 he was Managing Director of the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Technology (term of 3 years) at RWTH Aachen University.
research
Martin Zenke focused his research on the regulation of gene expression through transcription . In 1986, he and his colleagues were able to show that enhancer sequences are made up of individual modules which, on their own, have little activity but, in combination, significantly control gene expression. In 1988, Martin Zenke turned to research into oncogenes in the development of leukemia, especially v-erbA and v-rel oncogenes. His laboratory constructed oncogene versions that can be switched on and off in order to control the differentiation program of blood-forming cells into red blood cells ( erythrocytes ) and antigen-presenting dendritic cells . This work led him into stem cell research, in particular into blood-forming stem cells. Current work also deals with embryonic stem cells and the reprogramming of normal cells into pluripotent cells (cellular engineering) as well as tissue engineering .
Publications
Web links
- Homepage of the Institute for Biomedical Technologies - Chair of Cell Biology
- Homepage of the cell biology laboratory
- Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Technology at RWTH Aachen
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zenke, Martin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German biochemist and cell biologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 7th August 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Korbach |