Peter Hegemann
Peter Hegemann (born 11 December 1954 in Münster, West Germany) is Professor and Head of the Department for Biophysics at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He studied chemistry in Münster and Munich and earned his PhD 1984 in Munich with an investigation into the structure and function of halorhodopsin, a light-driven chloride pump in Halobacterium halobium. As a postdoc, he worked in the research groups of Dieter Oesterhelt (1984 to 1985) and with Kenneth W. Foster at Syracuse University (1985 to 1986). In 1986, he started a research group in the Department of Membrane Biochemistry at the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry in Frankfurt, Germany. He became professor at the University of Regensburg and was appointed full professor at the Humboldt-University of Berlin in 2004. In 2015, he was awarded a Senior Research Professor position in Neuroscience by the Hertie Foundation.
Research
Hegemann, together with Georg Nagel, is credited with the discovery of channelrhodopsins, a family of directly light-gated ion channels.[1] This discovery has opened the new field of optogenetics, manipulating the activity of neurons and other cells with light. Since the original discovery of channelrhodopsin in the green alga Chlamydomonas, Hegemann and his group have improved its properties by molecular engineering, resulting in a wide variety of designer opsins which are faster, more sensitive, responsive to different colors of light, or conduct different ions than natural channelrhodopsins. These molecular tools have enabled neuroscientists around the world to stimulate genetically defined populations of neurons non-invasively and with great precision.
Awards
- 2010 Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, together with Georg Nagel and Ernst Bamberg[2]
- 2010 Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize, together with Georg Nagel und Ernst Bamberg[3]
- 2012 Zülch Prize
- 2012 Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina[4]
- 2013 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, awarded by the German research foundation
- 2013 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine,[5] together with Georg Nagel
- 2013 The Brain Prize,[6] awarded by the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation
- 2014 Member of EMBO[7]
- 2016 Hector Wissenschaftspreis[8]
- 2016 Harvey Prize[9][10]
- 2016 Bonhoeffer Medal of the Max-Planck Society
- 2016 Massry Prize
- 2018 Gairdner Foundation International Award
- 2019 Honorary doctorate from the University of Regensburg[11]
- 2019 Rumford Prize, for "extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics," with Ernst Bamberg, Ed Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Gero Miesenböck, and Georg Nagel.[12]
- 2019 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, with Ed Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, and Gero Miesenböck[13]
- 2020 Shaw Prize in Life Sciences.[14]
- 2020 ERC Synergy Grant[15]
- 2021 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research[16]
- 2022 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize awarded by Columbia University[17]
References
- ^ Friedman, Jeffrey M. (2021). "How the discovery of microbial opsins led to the development of optogenetics". Cell. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.022. ISSN 0092-8674.
- ^ Ninth Annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences Awarded to Dr. Peter Hegemann, Dr. Georg Nagel, and Dr. Ernst Bamberg (wiley.com)
- ^ Preisträger Archived 4 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine of the Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation (beckurts-stiftung.de)
- ^ Peter Hegemann at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (leopoldina.org)
- ^ "Professor Peter HEGEMANN | Jeantet". 1 October 2017.
- ^ Peter Hegemann Archived 30 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine thebrainprize.org
- ^ EMBO enlarges its membership for 50th anniversary. Press release
- ^ "Hector Wissenschaftspreis geht an HU-Biophysiker — Presseportal". Hu-berlin.de (in German). 29 January 2016. Archived from the original on 4 February 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
- ^ "Deisseroth to receive Harvey Prize in Human Health". News Center.
- ^ Harvey Prize 2016
- ^ "Ehrendoktorwürde für Prof. Dr. Peter Hegemann – Exzellenzcluster". NeuroCure (in German). Retrieved 10 October 2020.
- ^ "Rumford Prize Awarded for the Invention and Refinement of Optogenetics". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ^ "2019 Warren Alpert Prize Recipients Announced | Warren Alpert Foundation Prize". warrenalpert.org. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ "The Shaw Prize". www.shawprize.org.
- ^ "ERC announces 34 new Synergy Grants". ERC: European Research Council. 28 October 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- ^ Hofschneider, Mark. "Light-sensitive microbial proteins and optogenetics". Lasker Foundation.
- ^ "Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Gero Miesenböck Awarded Horwitz Prize for Foundational Work on Optogenetics". Columbia University Irving Medical Center. September 6, 2022.
External links
- Prof. Dr. Peter Hegemann, Profile and Institute at the Humboldt-University of Berlin (hu-berlin.de)
- Prof. Dr. Peter Hegemann at the Cluster of Excellence Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat)
- Peter Hegemann publications indexed by Google Scholar
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