01.05.2012 Honorary professorship for Mohamed Marahiel

Prof. Dr. Mohamed Marahiel visited Wuhan University (WHU) in China. After his talk at the Luoija Forum, Marahiel accepted the honorary professorship presented by Jiang Changzhong, WHU’s Vice President. Marahiel received the honorary professorship in recognition of his accomplishments in the area of non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs).

Wuhan University in the eastern Chinese province Hubei is considered one of the most prominent Chinese universities. WHU offers education in the natural and social sciences as well as engineering. It has approximately 50 000 students and looks back at nearly 120 years of history. The Luoija Forum is an academic platform that invites outstanding scientists to present their research.

Since 1990, Prof. Marahiel is professor of biochemistry at Philipps-Universität Marburg. He is a member of the SYNMIKRO project area “biochemistry and structural biology” and speaker of the new SFB “Microbial diversity in environmental signal response”. Furthermore, Marahiel is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Marahiel’s research focuses on nonribosomal synthesis of bioactive secondary metabolites and ribosomally synthesized lassopeptides. Within SYNMIKRO, Marahiel tries to expand the biosynthesis of non-ribosomally as well as ribosomally produced peptides. Additionally, together with Roland Lill, he studies iron homeostasis in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis.