Volker Müller (microbiologist)

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Volker Müller (born September 12, 1959 in Bremerhaven ) is a German microbiologist and biochemist .

Career

Volker Müller is the son of Captain Wilfried Müller and his wife Anna and grew up on the North Sea coast in the region of Wursten , graduated from high school in Wesermünde in Bremerhaven and studied biology at the Georg-August University in Göttingen from 1979 to 1985 . He wrote his diploma thesis at the Institute for Microbiology at the Georg-August University in Göttingen under the supervision of Gerhard Gottschalk . From 1985 to 1987 he worked on his dissertation (The Na + cycle in Methanosarcina barkeri : Structure and function of a transmembrane Na + gradient) in the working group of G. Gottschalk and was awarded a Dr. rer. nat. PhD. After a brief postdoctoral stay in Göttingen he became a DFG fellow at the Yale University , New Haven, USA, to the laboratory of RM Macnab at the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at the flagellar motor of Salmonella typhimurium to work. In 1991 he went back to Göttingen and received his habilitation there in 1995 in the subject “Microbiology”. In 1997 he became professor of microbiology at the LMU Munich , and in 2002 he was appointed professor of microbiology at the University of Hamburg and the University of Frankfurt . Since 2003 he has been Professor of Microbiology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and Head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics . He is married to the microbiologist Beate Averhoff.

Awards, memberships and professional activities

1988 PhD award from VAAM , 1989 postdoctoral fellowship from DFG , 1995 award from the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology , 1996 Heisenberg grant from DFG , 2016 Advanced Investigator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

Membership and coordination of research associations: sub-project leader in the BMBF group Biopara (2012-2016), in the ERA-Net (Industrial Biotechnology) "CO2CHEM" (2015-2018), in the ERA-CoBiotech-Net "Biometchem" (2018-2021), in the SFB807, in the SFB472, in the DFG priority program "Genome function and regulation in Archaea" and "Structure of functional modules of energy-converting systems in prokaryotes". Head of the ERA network "OBAC" (Industrial Biotechnology) (2016-2020), head of the DFG research group "Adaptation and resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii , a pathogen of increasing importance." (2018-2021)

Research priorities

Volker Müller's field of work is the physiology of bacteria and archaea . One focus is the metabolism of anaerobic acetogenic bacteria and methanogenic archaea . Müller's group has made significant contributions to the understanding of the biochemistry and bioenergetics of acetogenesis and methanogenesis , discovered and characterized new enzymes , and explained how these pathways are linked to the synthesis of ATP . Another focus is the biotechnological use of these organisms for the production of biofuels, chemicals and polymers from carbon dioxide, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Müller holds a patent for biological hydrogen storage using a new enzyme and is working on new ways of biological hydrogen production and storage. Another focus is the physiology and adaptation of the pathogenic bacterium Acinetobacter baumanii. He heads the DFG research group 2251, in which Müller's working group deals with the basics of desiccation resistance.

Fonts

Müller has written over 230 publications (as of November 2019).

Professional activities

Müller was Director of the Center for Membrane Proteomics (2007-2009), Director of the Institute for Molecular Biosciences (2005-2007), Vice Dean (2006-2007, 2009-2010) and Dean (2007-2009) of the Faculty of Biosciences at Goethe University . Müller teaches in the Bachelor and Master courses and is a member of the technical committee for the accreditation of courses . He was a member and director of the board of trustees of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg.

Teaching

Müller teaches microbiology, biochemistry and molecular biology in the undergraduate and graduate courses and is a member of various examination boards. Under his supervision (as of 2019), 78 bachelor theses, 68 diploma theses, 33 master theses and 26 doctoral theses were completed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. European Research Council supports new projects of the Frankfurt professors Article of the FNP from April 11, 2017
  2. Hydrogen as the energy carrier of the future? Online article from July 22, 2014
  3. Method for storing gaseous hydrogen through producing methanoate (formats) Patent for biological hydrogen storage
  4. Progress in the fight against dangerous hospital germs Online article from April 22, 2018