Wolfram Bode (8 March 1942 – 25 January 2025) was a German

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

Background

Born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Bode was educated in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...

and the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

as a fellow of the

Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes The German Academic Scholarship Foundation (German: , or ''Studienstiftung'' for short) is Germany's largest and most prestigious scholarship foundation. According to its statutes, it supports "the university education of young people who, on ac ...

. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1971 at the University of Munich for studies of the

bacterial flagellum A flagellum (; : flagella) (Latin for 'whip' or 'scourge') is a hair-like appendage that protrudes from certain plant and animal sperm cells, from fungal spores (zoospores), and from a wide range of microorganisms to provide motility. Many prot ...

. From 1972 he worked at the

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry The Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (; abbreviated MPIB) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society located in Martinsried, a suburb of Munich. The institute was founded in 1973 by the merger of three formerly independent institute ...

Martinsried Martinsried is a village in the municipality of Planegg in Munich district, Bavaria, Germany. It is one of Munich's two science suburbs. Martinsried is best known as the location of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, the Max Planck Inst ...

. Bode was associate professor at the University of Munich. He died on 25 January 2025, at the age of 82.SZ Gedenken
sueddeutsche.de, 1 February 2025. Retrieved 1 February 2025 (in German).

Career

During his graduate studies Bode was using

x-ray scattering X-ray scattering techniques are a family of analytical techniques which reveal information about the crystal structure, chemical composition, and physical properties of materials and thin films. These techniques are based on observing the scatte ...

. After his Ph.D. he then joined the lab of

Robert Huber Robert Huber (; born 20 February 1937) is a German biochemist and Nobel laureate. known for his work crystallizing an intramembrane protein important in photosynthesis and subsequently applying X-ray crystallography to elucidate the protein's st ...

to work with x-ray crystallography. In 1975 Bode published the structure of

trypsin Trypsin is an enzyme in the first section of the small intestine that starts the digestion of protein molecules by cutting long chains of amino acids into smaller pieces. It is a serine protease from the PA clan superfamily, found in the dig ...

, which was among the first protease structures that could be solved. His following work on the structure and function of proteins has contributed significantly to the understanding of several important biological processes, especially

coagulation Coagulation, also known as clotting, is the process by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a thrombus, blood clot. It results in hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, followed by repair. The process of co ...

fibrinolysis Fibrinolysis is a process that prevents blood clots from growing and becoming problematic. Primary fibrinolysis is a normal body process, while secondary fibrinolysis is the breakdown of clots due to a medicine, a medical disorder, or some other c ...

and

photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...

References

External links

* https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wolfram_Bode {{DEFAULTSORT:Bode, Wolfram 1942 births 2025 deaths Scientists from Berlin German biochemists Studienstiftung alumni Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich University of Göttingen alumni University of Tübingen alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni