Rüdiger Klein
Encyclopedia
Rüdiger Klein is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 neurobiologist. He is director at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology
Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology
The Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology is a research institute of the Max Planck Society located in Martinsried, a suburb of Munich in Germany. Research centers on the basic mechanisms and functions of the developing and adult nervous system. Main focus areas include the mechanisms of...

 and head of the department Molecular Neurobiology.

Rüdiger Klein studied biology at the universities of Marburg and Tübingen and at the Juniata College
Juniata College
Juniata College is a private liberal arts college located in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. It is named after the Juniata River — one of the principal tributaries of the Susquehanna River. In 1876 it became the first college founded by the Church of the Brethren and has been co-educational since...

 (USA). He gained his PhD at the University of Tübingen and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick (NCI-Frederick)
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...

 (USA) and at the Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Bristol-Myers Squibb , often referred to as BMS, is a pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York City. The company was formed in 1989, following the merger of its predecessors Bristol-Myers and the Squibb Corporation...

 Pharmaceutical Research Institute (USA). Afterwards, he led a junior research group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory is a molecular biology research institution supported by 20 European countries and Australia as associate member state. EMBL was created in 1974 and is an intergovernmental organisation funded by public research money from its member states...

 (EMBL) in Heidelberg. In 2001, he was appointed director at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology.

Scientific focus

Rüdiger Klein’s scientific research is focused on the molecular mechanisms which allow nerve cells to communicate.

Rüdiger Klein’s work led to a number of scientific findings. Among these were
  1. the discovery of the receptors
    Receptor (biochemistry)
    In biochemistry, a receptor is a molecule found on the surface of a cell, which receives specific chemical signals from neighbouring cells or the wider environment within an organism...

     (TRK) of certain nerve growth factor
    Nerve growth factor
    Nerve growth factor is a small secreted protein that is important for the growth, maintenance, and survival of certain target neurons . It also functions as a signaling molecule. It is perhaps the prototypical growth factor, in that it is one of the first to be described...

    s. (Klein et al., Cell 1991a,b)
  2. the proof that certain signalling molecules (ephrin
    Ephrin
    In molecular biology, ephrins are a family of proteins that are ligands of class V receptor protein-tyrosine kinases. These receptors and their ligands have been implicated in regulating neuronal axon guidance and in patterning of the developing nervous system and may also serve a patterning and...

    s) guide the growth direction of nerve cell axons via repulsion. (Henkemeyer et al., Cell 1996; Orioli et al., EMBO Journal 1996; Brückner et al., Science 1997)
  3. the observation that ephrins regulate not only the development of the nervous system
    Nervous system
    The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...

     but also that of the lymphatic system
    Lymphatic system
    The lymphoid system is the part of the immune system comprising a network of conduits called lymphatic vessels that carry a clear fluid called lymph unidirectionally toward the heart. Lymphoid tissue is found in many organs, particularly the lymph nodes, and in the lymphoid follicles associated...

     and blood vessel
    Blood vessel
    The blood vessels are the part of the circulatory system that transports blood throughout the body. There are three major types of blood vessels: the arteries, which carry the blood away from the heart; the capillaries, which enable the actual exchange of water and chemicals between the blood and...

    s. (Adams et al., Genes Dev. 1999; Mäkinen et al. Genes Dev. 2005)

External links

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