After studies in Biochemistry and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Vienna and Karolinska Institute, I did my Ph.D. in Computational Biochemistry with Amedeo Caflisch at the University of Zurich. My work there focused on fragment-based docking for kinase ligands as well as chemoinformatic method development. After a short continuation as a postdoc in the same group, I joined the lab of Brian K. Shoichet at the University of California, San Francisco. This coincided with the publication of the structure of the first pharmacologically relevant G protein-coupled receptor, a unique opportunity to carry out one of the first studies of xray-structure-based ligand design for this protein class. Besides docking to GPCRs, I worked on the prediction of substrates for enzymes of unknown function, and have as such been contributing to the Enzyme Function Initiative.
From April 1, 2011 until October 2016, I was an Emmy Noether Junior Group Leader at Philipps-University Marburg. From May 2013 until April 2017, I was chairing COST Action CM1207 "GLISTEN: GPCR-Ligand Interactions, Structures, and Transmembrane Signalling: a European Research Network", which connected more than 210 scientists from 31 European countries.
In March 2015, I was awarded the "Innovation Prize in Medicinal/Pharmaceutical Chemistry" by the Medicinal Chemistry sections of the Society of German Chemists (GDCh) and the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG). This was followed by the "Silver Jubilee Award" of the Molecular Graphics and Modelling Society (MGMS) in November of the same year.
Since October 2016, I have been Full Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, funded by the Heisenberg programme of the German Research Foundation DFG. My Erdős number is 4.
List of past & future seminars
