Managing Director, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

Prof. F. Ulrich Hartl studied Medicine at Heidelberg University and received a doctoral degree in Biochemistry in 1985. He then worked with Walter Neupert in Munich on the biogenesis of mitochondria. In 1988, Hartl began studies on molecular chaperones and demonstrated, together with Arthur Horwich, the basic role of chaperones in assisting protein folding. After a stay with William Wickner at UCLA (1989/1990), Hartl accepted an offer from Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York to join the department of James Rothman as an Associate Member. Between 1991 and 1997 Hartl worked on chaperone-assisted protein folding in the bacterial and eukaryotic cytosol. In 1993 he was promoted to Member with tenure, and in 1994 became HHMI investigator. In 1997, Hartl returned to Munich to head the Department of Cellular Biochemistry at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, where he initiated research into neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding and aggregation.

Hartl has received multiple national and international awards for his work, including the Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the Shaw Prize and the Breakthrough Prize. He is a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and of the US National Academy of Sciences.

* Copyright of the photo : Susanne Vondenbusch-Teetz, MPI of Biochemistry