Rainer Jaenicke

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Rainer Jaenicke (born October 30, 1930 in Frankfurt am Main ; † July 26, 2016 ) was a German biochemist.

Jaenicke held the chair for biochemistry at the University of Regensburg from 1970 until his retirement in 1999. His research focus was on protein folding .

Career

Rainer Jaenicke was born in 1930 as the youngest son of the chemist Johannes Jaenicke (1888–1984) and his wife Erna. Buttermilch (1895–1961) born. Through his mother, he was partially of Jewish descent. During the Weimar Republic, his father was assistant to the Nobel Prize winner Fritz Haber and compiled the extensive collection of material that is now owned by the Max Planck Society and on which all existing Haber biographies are based.

Rainer Jaenicke studied chemistry and received his doctorate in physical chemistry with Hermann Hartmann (1914–1984) at the University of Frankfurt. He completed his habilitation there in 1963 and then went to the University of Pittsburgh, USA, where he worked at Max Lauffer's institute (1914–2012) until 1969. After his return he was appointed to the chair for physical biochemistry at the newly founded University of Regensburg, where he stayed until his retirement in 1999.

In 1991 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina and was awarded the Max Planck Research Prize in 1994.

Scientific achievement

Rainer Jaenicke was one of the pioneers in investigating the structure formation mechanisms in proteins (protein folding), using physical methods such as analytical ultracentrifugation and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. In 1979 he organized the first major conference on protein folding.

One of the important and groundbreaking results of his research was the finding that unspecific clumping (aggregation) of protein molecules is an important competitive reaction to well-ordered structure formation. This would later become important when such aggregates were recognized as a problem in the biotechnological production of proteins as well as in diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinsonism.

Other important areas in which his Regensburg working group made outstanding contributions were the structure formation of proteins from several subunits (assembly of oligomers), the role of folding aids (molecular chaperones), and the stability of proteins under extreme conditions, such as high or low Temperatures, high hydrostatic pressures or high salinity.

Family life

Shortly before completing his doctorate, he married the pianist Agathe Calvelli-Adorno (1930–2019), with whom he had played as a flautist from childhood. Jaenicke is the father of the actor Hannes Jaenicke and the painter Alexander Calvelli .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ biographical data, publications and Academic pedigree of Rainer Jaenicke at academictree.org, accessed on February 13 2018th
  2. ↑ a b Michael Groß: Chemistry as a family tradition. In: News from chemistry. 65, 2017, pp. 1036-1038, doi : 10.1002 / nadc.20174059230 .
  3. ^ Member entry by Rainer Jaenicke at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on October 7, 2017.
  4. ^ A b Johannes Buchner, David Eisenberg, Franz Schmid: In memoriam-Rainer Jaenicke. In: Protein Science. 26, 2017, pp. 394–395, doi : 10.1002 / pro.3098 .
personal data
SURNAME Jaenicke, Rainer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 2016