image: This is professor Robert Tampé from the Institute for Biochemistry at Goethe University Frankfurt. view more
Credit: Uwe Dettmar
"It's a special distinction for the whole team, who were able to illuminate fundamental aspects of the adaptive immune system," says Robert Tampé. "These discoveries will not only find their way into textbooks, but will also provide a variety of therapeutic approaches for combatting infectious diseases and cancer."
Just last year, Tampé was awarded an "ERC Advanced Grant" by the European Research Council amounting to 2.5 million euros. This project is dedicated to the question of how certain viruses circumvent control by the immune system. It particularly looks at molecular transport mechanisms that carry fragments of invading viruses to the cell's surface where they attract the attention of the T-cells of the immune system. Knowing how viruses bypass this process promises progress in the field of infectious and autoimmune diseases as well as in cancer research.
The Reinhard Koselleck project, with 1.5 million euros in funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), also deals with the quality control and assembly by macromolecular complexes that trigger the immune system. Through the Koselleck program, the DFG enables outstanding researchers to pursue exceptionally innovative and higher-risk projects. Tampé and his team are investigating the organization of the antigen quality control locations both inside the cell and in the cell membrane. The challenge lies in decoding the structure and function of larger, differently assembled protein complexes which, moreover, rarely exist in intercellular membranes.
Robert Tampé studied chemistry at the Technical University Darmstadt where he received his doctorate in biochemistry. As Max-Kade Fellow, he explored mechanistic aspects of antigen presentation at Stanford University. From 1992 to 1998, he headed a research group at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried and he was appointed as Assistant Professor in Biochemistry at the Technical University of Munich in 1996. From 1996 to 1998 he was DFG Heisenberg Fellow. Subsequently, he headed the Institute of Physiological Chemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Marburg. Since 2001, he has been the director of the Institute of Biochemistry at Goethe University. He also holds honorary visiting professorships at the University of Oxford and University of Kyoto.
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Further information: Prof. Dr. Robert Tampé, Institute of Biochemistry, Riedberg Campus, Tel. +49 69 798-29475, tampe@em.uni-frankfurt.de
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Goethe University is a research-oriented university in the European financial centre Frankfurt am Main. The university was founded in 1914 through private funding, primarily from Jewish sponsors, and has since produced pioneering achievements in the areas of social sciences, sociology and economics, medicine, quantum physics, brain research, and labour law. It gained a unique level of autonomy on 1 January 2008 by returning to its historic roots as a "foundation university". Today, it is one of the three largest universities in Germany. Together with the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Mainz, it is a partner in the inter-state strategic Rhine-Main University Alliance. Internet: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de
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