Peter Fromherz

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Peter Fromherz (born October 8, 1942 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) is a German biochemist and biophysicist .

life and work

Fromherz studied chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe since 1961 , where he graduated with a diploma in 1966. In 1969 he was in Hans Kuhn at the University of Marburg Dr. rer. nat. PhD. He then worked until 1981 at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry , where he joined in 1978 in the subject Physical Chemistry Habilitation . From 1981 to 1994 he was a full professor for experimental physics (biophysics) at the University of Ulm , before moving to the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry as director and scientific member , where he heads the membrane and neurophysics department. He has also been an honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich since 1994 .

Fromherz works on hybrid brain-semiconductor systems, the connection of nerve cells and computer chips . In 1991 he solved the problem that chips work with electrons, but nerve cells use ions to transport charges, by applying a thin silicon dioxide layer to the chip and then the nerve cell. The semiconductor elements can register the electric field of the nerve cell and pass it on to the computer system. A non-invasive neuron-silicon coupling was thus achieved. He succeeded in doing the opposite, i.e. stimulating nerve cells with computer chips, in 1995. Since the leech nerve cells he had used up until then did not make any synaptic contacts with one another in culture, he later used red mud snail neurons . He was able to transplant several isolated cells onto the chip and observe how they grew together to form a network of nerves. Later this was also possible with the smaller rat nerve cells. Such neurochips are used in basic research and drug development: Psychotropic drugs are tested on nerve cells that live on a chip. He demonstrated the effectiveness of the principle in 2007.

Publications

Fromherz has published more than 150 papers, including:

  • Lipid-Protein Films for Building Simple Organized Systems . Dissertation, Marburg 1969, DNB 482110406 .
  • Synthesis and analysis of an enzyme-lipid-dye association between electrolyte and semiconductor . Habilitation thesis, Marburg 1977.
  • Interfacing of nerve cells and semiconductor chips , in Müller-Krumbhaar, Wagner (editor) And he throws the dice , Wiley / VCH 2001 (also Physikalische Blätter 2001).
  • Semiconductor chips with ion channels, nerve cells and brain . In: Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures . tape 16 , no. 1 , January 2003, p. 24-34 , doi : 10.1016 / S1386-9477 (02) 00578-7 .

Awards

Fromherz has been a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences since 1992 and of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences since 2003 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ P. Fromherz, A. Offenhäusser, T. Vetter and J. Weis: A Neuron-Silicon-Junction: A Retzius-Cell of the Leech on an Insulated-Gate Field-Effect Transistor . In: Science . Volume 252, 1991, pp. 1290-1293, doi: 10.1126 / science.1925540 .
  2. ↑ Peter Fromherz and Alfred Stett: Silicon-Neuron Junction: Capacitive Stimulation of an Individual Neuron on a Silicon Chip . In: Physical Review Letters . Volume 75, 1995, pp. 1670-1673, doi: 10.1103 / PhysRevLett.75.1670 .
  3. ^ Günther Zeck and Peter Fromherz: Noninvasive Neuroelectronic Interfacing with Synaptically Connected Snail Neurons Immobilized on a semiconductor chip . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 98, 2001, pp. 10457-10462, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.181348698 .
  4. ↑ Ingmar Peitz, Moritz Voelker and Peter Fromherz: A recombinant serotonin receptor on a transistor as a prototype for cell-based biosensors . In: Angewandte Chemie . Volume 119, No. 30, 2007, pp. 5889-5892, doi: 10.1002 / anie.200700726 .
  5. ↑ List of Merkle research award winners on the website of the University of Ulm
personal data
SURNAME Fromherz, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigshafen am Rhein