Ueli Aebi is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

structural biologist and co-founder of the Maurice E. Müller Institute for Structural Biology at the

Biozentrum University of Basel Research at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel is dedicated to the central question of how molecules and cells create life − from atom to organism, and from the physics of life to the dynamics of multicellular systems. Accordingly, the s ...

Life

Aebi studied

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, and

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 ...

at the Universities of Bern and Basel from 1967 to 1974, graduating in 1977 in

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

at the University of Basel. After establishing his academic career in the United States (

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a Private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Ho ...

), in 1986 he returned to the Biozentrum as

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of structural biology. He was co-founder of the Maurice E. Müller Institute for Structural Biology and its director from 1986 until reaching

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

status in 2011.

Work

Aebi is recognized as a pioneer in integrative structural biology as well as mechano- and

nanobiology Nanobiotechnology, bionanotechnology, and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology. Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blank ...

. His work focused on the elucidation of the structure, function and assembly of the cyto- and nucleoskeleton and the

nuclear pore complex The nuclear pore complex (NPC), is a large protein complex giving rise to the nuclear pore. A great number of nuclear pores are studded throughout the nuclear envelope that surrounds the eukaryote cell nucleus. The pores enable the nuclear tra ...

(NPC), as well as the

amyloid Amyloids are aggregates of proteins characterised by a fibrillar morphology of typically 7–13 nm in diameter, a β-sheet secondary structure (known as cross-β) and ability to be stained by particular dyes, such as Congo red. In the human ...

fibrils Fibrils () are structural biological materials found in nearly all living organisms. Not to be confused with fibers or filaments, fibrils tend to have diameters ranging from 10 to 100 nanometers (whereas fibers are micro to milli-scale stru ...

that are a hallmark of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

. He studied the architecture of diverse

supramolecular assemblies Supramolecular chemistry refers to the branch of chemistry concerning chemical systems composed of a discrete number of molecules. The strength of the forces responsible for spatial organization of the system range from weak intermolecular forces, ...

using a combination of

light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...

electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

and

atomic force microscopy Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the opti ...

X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to Diffraction, diffract in specific directions. By measuring th ...

, and

protein engineering Protein engineering is the process of developing useful or valuable proteins through the design and production of unnatural polypeptides, often by altering amino acid sequences found in nature. It is a young discipline, with much research taking pl ...

. Among others, Aebi determined the 3-dimensional structure of the NPC by

cryo-electron tomography Cryogenic electron tomography (cryoET) is an imaging technique used to reconstruct high-resolution (~1–4 nm) three-dimensional volumes of samples, often (but not limited to) biological macromolecules and cells. cryoET is a specialized appl ...

Awards and honors

* 1993 Elected Member of the

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 ...

* 1999 Elected Member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

* 2007 Dr. honoris causa (h.c.) from the 1st Medical Faculty,

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

, Prague, Czech Republic * 2011 Carl Zeiss Lecture Award of the German Society for Cell Biology * 2011 Distinguished Scientist Award of the

Microscopy Society of America The Microscopy Society of America (MSA), founded in 1942 as The Electron Microscope Society of America, is a non-profit organization that provides microanalytical facilities for studies within the sciences. Currently, there are approximately 3000 me ...

Biozentrum University of Basel: Two prestigious awards for Ueli Aebi
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References

External links

Webpage Biozentrum, Emeriti
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aebi, Ueli Living people Scientists from Bern University of Bern alumni Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Members of Academia Europaea Biozentrum University of Basel University of Basel alumni Year of birth missing (living people)