Michael Szardenings
Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Germany
Biography
Recognizing that design of molecular interactions of larger molecules often exceeds our present scientific capabilities, Michael’s personal interest lies in the advancement of combinatorial methods at the border line between molecular biology, medicine and chemistry and its exploration for pharmaceutical and medical relevant research. He has been working with enzyme inhibitors as well as membrane and nuclear receptors. Present activities focus on the improvement of peptide phage display methods to establish novel cell type specific ligands and towards a better understanding of the immune response amongst others in allergies and infectious disease.
Michael studied chemistry in Hamburg with a diploma thesis on bioluminescent nucleic acid derivatives in 1985. Three years later he received a doctoral degree at the former German biotechnology center GBF (Braunschweig) for protein design of protease inhibitor hPSTI. After postdoctoral years in protein crystallography and research on melanocortin receptors he served as CSO and CBO for phage display and CRO companies between 1998 and 2009, when he was appointed group leader of a continuously growing group at Fraunhofer IZI in Leipzig. He is now also heading a spin off company in Leipzig for epitope mapping services.
Abstract
Abstract : Epitope mapping of the human immunome directly from sera