Hans-Peter Sarnow is a German virologist. He is a professor of microbiology and immunology at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Early life and education

Sarnow was born and raised in

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He completed his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

at the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz () is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's southernmost university and is ...

in 1979 before moving to the United States for his PhD at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

. Upon earning his doctorate degree in 1982, Sarnow completed his postdoctoral research with

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is a professor of biology at the California Institute of Tech ...

at the

Whitehead Institute Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research institute located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States that is dedicated to improving human health through basic biomedical research. It was founded as a fiscally indep ...

Career

Following his postdoctoral research, Sarnow became an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

of molecular biology at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

from 1986 until 1991. Early into his tenure, he discovered internal ribosome entry sites in cellular mRNAs and established a program to examine mRNA-ribosome interactions in mammalian cells. He moved up the ranks at the institution before ultimately leaving in 1996 to join the faculty at

. During his early tenure at Stanford, Sarnow and his research team identified miR-122 as a necessary mechanism to cause the hepatitis C virus uses to replicate and grow. He was also appointed an editor of the ''

Virology Journal ''Virology Journal'' is an Open access (publishing), open-access Peer review, peer-reviewed medical journal published by BioMed Central. It publishes research related to viruses and the prevention of infection, viral infection (including vaccine ...

'' and elected a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

. In 2010, Sarnow was appointed chair of microbiology and immunology at Stanford. Prior to being replaced as department chair by David Schneider, Sarnow also became a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Stanford Maternal Child Health Research Institute, and the Stanford Cancer Institute. In 2020, he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

Personal life

Sarnow is married to

Karla Kirkegaard Karla Kirkegaard (born 1954) is the Violetta L. Horton Research Professor of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She was the chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology from 2006 to 2010. She is an elected member of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarnow, Peter Living people University of Konstanz alumni Stony Brook University alumni Stanford University faculty University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus faculty German virologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Year of birth missing (living people)