Rolf Marschalek

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Rolf Marschalek (born December 23, 1960 in Heidenheim / Brenz ) is a German molecular biologist. Since 2000 he has been Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . His areas of expertise are biochemistry , molecular biology , genetics and immunology .

Life

From 1980 to 1986 he studied biology (with a focus on biochemistry) at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen / Nuremberg . After receiving his doctorate in biochemistry (1989), he began to work on retromobile elements in Dictyostelium discoideum . A new retromobile element, DRE (today TRE5-A), was discovered and this was genomically characterized together with another element, Tdd-3.

From 1992 to 1999 he was assistant professor for genetics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) in Erlangen, where he researched the molecular basis of acute leukemia . Here he devoted himself to a special group of infant leukemias caused by chromosomal translocations . The focus of his research was the "MLL" gene ("HRX", "ALL-1", "HTRX"). This gene is located on chromosome 11q23 and is now called "KMT2A". He has been working on this gene and its various translocation variants since 1992 until today.

In 2000 he received appointments to teach in Hamburg and Frankfurt / Main. He decided to accept the call to professor for pharmaceutical biology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.

In 2004 he founded the Diagnostic Center for Acute Leukemia (DCAL). About half of all 94 different chromosomal translocations of the KMT2A gene to date were discovered at the DCAL and described for the first time. These KMT2A translocations cause acute leukemia (ALL or AML). Specific translocations are found preferentially in infants, children or adults. The Frankfurt DCAL works with all of the world's major leukemia centers and leukemia study groups.

From 2001 to 2011 he was project leader within the BMBF-funded "Genome Network", from 2005 to 2011 spokesman for the research group "Pathomolecular gene products and their mechanisms of action" (financed by the German Cancer Aid) and since 2007 has been project leader within the Frankfurt Excellence Initiative “CEF Macromolecular Complexes”.

Scholarships

  • 1990–1992 postdoctoral fellowship from the DFG
  • 1991 DFG short-term grant (3 months in Sydney, Australia)

Scientific awards and prizes

  • 1995 Award of the Ria Freifrau von Fritsch Research Prize on the subject
  • 1995 “Mechanisms of the development of leukemia in acute lymphoblastic leukemia with the chromosomal translocation t (4; 11)”
  • 1999 Poster Award at the Acute Leukemias VIII Congress, Münster
  • 1999 Emmy Noether Habilitation Prize from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • 2004 1st poster prize at the Bi-annual Leukemia Meeting, Celle
  • 2008 Poster Prize at the 48th Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society for Hematology, Glasgow, UK
  • 2009 Scientific award of the Rhein-Main-Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Gastroenterologie for the published manuscript “Meyer C, Brieger A, Plotz G, Weber N, Passmann S, Dingermann T, Zeuzem S, Trojan J, Marschalek R. An Interstitial Deletion at 3p21.3 Results in the Genetic Fusion of MLH1 and ITGA9 in a Lynch Syndrome Family. Clin Cancer Res. 15, 762-769. "
  • 2010 Visiting Professor at the University of Cagliari, Italy: Sept 19-29.
  • 2018–2023 Reinhard Koselleck Prize Winner of the DFG (1.5 million Euro grant)

Duties and honors

  • 2001–2013 Director of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology
  • since 2003 directorate of ZAFES (www.zafes.de)
  • since 2004 director of DCAL ( http://web.uni-frankfurt.de/fb14/dcal/ )
  • since 2005 directorate of the graduate school FIRST (www.first-gradschool.de/)
  • since 2007 board member of the tumor bank for pediatric tumors
  • since 2011 editor of " AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BLOOD RESEARCH "

Publications

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Marschalek, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German molecular biologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Heidenheim / Brenz