Juri Rappsilber (born 1971) is a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

in the area of

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used ...

and

proteomics Proteomics is the large-scale study of proteins. Proteins are vital macromolecules of all living organisms, with many functions such as the formation of structural fibers of muscle tissue, enzymatic digestion of food, or synthesis and replicatio ...

Career

Rappsilber studied chemistry at

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

, and with

Tom Rapoport Tom Abraham Rapoport (born June 17, 1947) is a German-American cell biologist who studies protein transport in cells. Currently, he is a professor at Harvard Medical School and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Born in Cincinnati, Oh ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. In 2001, he earned his Ph.D. in Proteomics jointly from EMBL Heidelberg and the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

working in the laboratory of Matthias Mann on the mass spectrometric analysis of protein complexes, externally supervised by

Michael Karas Michael Karas (born 1952) is a German physical chemistry scientist and Professor, known for his researches on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), a technique in mass spectrometry. Michael Karas studied Chemistry at the University ...

. He followed Mann to the

University of Southern Denmark The University of Southern Denmark (, SDU) has campuses located in Southern Denmark and on Zealand. It offers a number of joint programmes in co-operation with the University of Flensburg and the University of Kiel. Contacts with regional indu ...

and completed a

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

fellowship before starting his independent career at IFOM - FIRC Institute for Molecular Oncology,

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

in 2003. In 2006, he joined the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

Centre for Cell Biology in the Institute of Cell Biology at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. In 2009, he became a senior research fellow of the Wellcome Trust, in 2010 he was appointed Professor of Proteomics in Edinburgh. Since 2011, he has been

Full Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

and head of the Chair of Bioanalytics at TU Berlin.

Research

Rappsilber's interests are focused on combining chemistry and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

with biological mass spectrometry to expand the current knowledge on how cells work. His lab is working on novel methods for identifying and quantifying the interactions and the accurate sites of interaction of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

s with other proteins,

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

and

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...

. As a central tool they have pioneered crosslinking mass spectrometry. Technologically, they bridge

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

nucleotide Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...

chemistry,

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

, separation sciences, mass spectrometry,

data visualisation Data and information visualization (data viz/vis or info viz/vis) is the practice of designing and creating graphic or visual representations of a large amount of complex quantitative and qualitative data and information with the help of stat ...

, programming and

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

. Their vision is to reveal the dynamic structure and interactions of every protein in a cell, in a time-resolved manner.

Awards

* 2023 ERC Synergy Grant TransFORM * 2023 TU Berlin Award for exemplary teaching * 2023 Mass Spectrometry in the Life Sciences Award of the German Mass Spectrometry Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Massenspektrometrie, DGMS) * 2021 Elected

EMBO Member Membership of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is an award granted by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in recognition of "research excellence and the outstanding achievements made by a life scientist". , 88 EMB ...

* 2020 EuPA Crosslinking Mass Spectrometry Award * 2009 Senior Research Fellow of the Wellcome Trust * 2005 Marie Curie Excellence Fellow * 2001 Marie Curie Fellow

References

External links

* *
Website
at

Unifying Systems in Catalysis Cluster of Excellence Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat) is an interdisciplinary research network established by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the federal and state initiative, Excellence Strategy ( dutch: Exzellenzstra ...

(UniSysCat) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rappsilber, Juri Academics of the University of Edinburgh Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin Technische Universität Berlin alumni Goethe University Frankfurt alumni German chemists German biochemists Mass spectrometrists Living people 1971 births Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization European Research Council grantees