Prof. Thomas Jenuwein Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Austria

Prof. Jenuwein is Senior Scientist at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna, and Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Microbiology and Genetics at the University of Vienna. His research focuses on the functional characterization of mammalian chromatin and his team identified the first histone lysine methyltransferase (HMTase) and... read moreshowed that the selective methylation of histone H3 on the lysine 9 residue (H3-K9) generates a high-affinity binding site for the chromo-domain of the HP1 proteins. These landmark findings established a biochemical explanation for the formation and propagation of silenced chromatin domains and for the functional organization of chromosomes. Together, they represent important breakthroughs in chromatin research during the last years. Prof. Jenuwein is an Elected Member of EMBO, a Member of Faculty of 1000, the coordinator of the GEN-AU network "Epigenetic plasticity of the mammalian genome" and the coordinator of the European Network of Excellence (NoE) "The Epigenome" and was awarded an Honorary Professorship at the University of Vienna in 2003 and the Sir Hans Krebs Medal of the FEBS society in July 2005.