Tim Clausen (born 12 March 1969) is a

structural biologist Structural biology deals with structural analysis of living material (formed, composed of, and/or maintained and refined by living cells) at every level of organization. Early structural biologists throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries we ...

and a senior scientist at the

Research Institute of Molecular Pathology The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) is a biomedical research center, which conducts curiosity-driven basic research in the molecular life sciences. The IMP is located at the Vienna Biocenter in Vienna, Austria. The institute empl ...

(IMP) in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria.

Early life and education

Tim Clausen was born in

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish language, Danish and ; ; ) is an independent city, independent town in the far north of the Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. After Kiel and Lübeck, it is the third-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg's ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, in 1969. He did his undergraduate studies in biology 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 ...

from 1988. He graduated with a diploma following research at the lab of Sandro Ghisla in 1994. Following his graduation, Clausen 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 ...

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 ...

for his PhD studies. Clausen obtained his PhD in chemistry summa cum laude in 1997.

Career

In 1997, Tim Clausen became a

postdoctoral researcher 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 ...

with Albrecht Messerschmidt at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, leading from 1999 on a small group studying

pyridoxal phosphate Pyridoxal phosphate (PLP, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, P5P), the active form of vitamin B6, is a coenzyme in a variety of enzymatic reactions. The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has catalogued more than 140 PLP-dependen ...

enzymes. He obtained a lecture qualification (Habilitation) in biochemistry by the University of Konstanz in 2001. In 2002, Tim Clausen became a group leader in structural biology at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna. In 2009, he was promoted to senior scientist.

Research

Tim Clausen studies the protein quality control system that cells evolved, and through which molecular chaperones and

proteases A protease (also called a peptidase, proteinase, or proteolytic enzyme) is an enzyme that catalyzes proteolysis, breaking down proteins into smaller polypeptides or single amino acids, and spurring the formation of new protein products. They do ...

monitor the functionality of each

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 ...

, thereby reducing the amount of misfolded molecules that may undergo dangerous interactions. Tim Clausen and his lab perform structure-function analyses of several

eukaryotic The eukaryotes ( ) constitute the Domain (biology), domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a membrane-bound cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, seaweeds, and many unicellular organisms ...

and

prokaryotic A prokaryote (; less commonly spelled procaryote) is a single-celled organism whose cell lacks a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. The word ''prokaryote'' comes from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'before', and (), meaning 'nut' ...

quality control factors to find novel strategies to combat protein-folding diseases and bacterial pathogenicity.

Awards and achievements

Tim Clausen was awarded a Max Planck Fellowship in 1994; the Heinz Mayer-Leibnitz Award of the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...

in 2004; he was selected EMBO young investigator in 2005 and elected

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 2,100 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

EMBO member in 2010. He was awarded a

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

(ERC) advanced grant in 2016.

References

External links

Tim Clausen’s lab
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clausen, Tim 1969 births Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Living people European Research Council grantees People from Flensburg