Michael Famulok

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Michael Famulok (born May 9, 1960 in Fulda ) is a German chemist and professor of chemical biology .

Life

Michael Famulok studied chemistry at the University of Marburg from 1981 , where he completed his diploma in 1986 and obtained his doctorate in 1989 with a thesis on the mechanisms of the carcinogenesis of aromatic amine compounds. From 1989 to 1990 he was a postdoctoral fellow with Julius Rebek at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , where he worked on the supramolecular chemistry of synthetic receptor molecules. A second postdoctoral fellowship with Jack Szostak at the Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Department of Genetics in Boston followed from 1990 to 1992 . There he dealt with the biochemistry of RNA and SELEX and aptamer technology. From 1992 to 1996 he worked at the Institute for Biochemistry at LMU Munich , where he completed his habilitation there in 1996 in bioorganic chemistry and biochemistry with a thesis on aptamers. Since 1999 he has been Professor of Chemical Biology and Biochemistry at the LIMES Institute of the University of Bonn. In 1997 he was visiting professor at the University of Strasbourg .

Famulok conducts research on the interface between organic chemistry and biochemistry . The focus of his research interests is the directed evolution of combinatorial nucleic acid libraries (SELEX technology), the chemical biology of small guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) and DNA nanotechnology. Aptamers and small organic molecules are used in various cell systems and model organisms (Drosophila, mouse) to elucidate the function of target proteins. For example, it has been shown that guanine nucleotide exchange factors are involved in the transmission of signals from receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) and can be used as targets for drug development.

At the end of 2012, Famulok was appointed a Max Planck Fellow at the caesar research center . There he heads a working group that deals with the structure elucidation of biomolecules and with the chemical biology of photo-activatable substances. He has been one of the Vice Presidents of the German Research Foundation since 2013 .

Fonts

  • Günter Mayer and Michael Famulok (2007): Aptamers as therapeutics and as tools for drug discovery. Nucleic acids in the drug discovery process. In: Pharmacy in our time . Vol. 36, pp. 432-436. doi : 10.1002 / pauz.200700238
  • M. Famulok et al. (2007): Functional aptamers and aptazymes in biotechnology, diagnostics, and therapy. In: Chem Rev. Vol. 107, pp. 3715-3743.
  • A. Heckel and M. Famulok (2008): Building objects from nucleic acids for a nanometer world. In: Biochemistry. Vol. 90, pp. 1096-1107.

Honourings and prices

Famulok has been a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts since 2002 and the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina since 2007.

  • 1990 Liebig scholarship (Fund of the Chemical Industry)
  • 1995 lecturer grant (Fonds der Chemischen Industrie)
  • 1996 Habilitation award from the LMU Munich University Society
  • 1998 Karl-Ziegler sponsorship award from the Society of German Chemists
  • 1998 Otto Klung Prize for Chemistry
  • 2000 Steinhofer Prize from the University of Freiburg
  • 2002 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
  • 2008 GlaxoSmithKline Award for outstanding achievements in the field of chemical biology
  • 2010 ERC Advanced Investigator Grant

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Communication from the University of Bonn. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  2. ↑ Member entry by Michael Famulok (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 5, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Famulok, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and professor of chemical biology
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Fulda