Dirk Schübeler is a German researcher, Director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) and professor at the University of Basel. He is an expert in gene regulation.

Dirk Schübeler
Born8 May 1969 (1969-05-08) (age 55)
Helmarshausen, Germany
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular biology, epigenetics
Institutions
  • Helmholtz Center for Infectious Research
  • Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
  • Friedrich Miescher Institute of Biomedical Research (FMI)
  • University of Basel
Websitewww.fmi.ch/research-groups/groupleader.html?group=34

Education and career

edit

Dirk Schübeler obtained his PhD from the Technical University in Braunschweig, Germany working in the Helmholtz Center for Infectious Research in the group of Jürgen Bode. He then did postdoctoral studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA, working with Mark Groudine. Schübeler joined the Friedrich Miescher Institute of Biomedical Research (FMI) in 2003 as a junior group leader, in 2008 he was appointed senior group leader, and in 2011 he became adjunct professor at the University of Basel. In April 2020 he was appointed Director of the FMI.[1][2] Since January 2021, Dirk Schübeler has been Full Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Basel.[3]

Schübeler serves on the editorial board of several scientific journals including EMBO Journal and Molecular Systems Biology. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna, Austria, the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI), Cambridge, UK and the Excellence Centre of Integrative Biological Signaling Studies (CIBBS), Freiburg, Germany.

Research

edit

Schübeler's research focuses on understanding how chromatin states are generated and how they contribute to the regulation of transcription and replication. Together with his research group, Schübeler has pioneered approaches to measure DNA methylation,[4][5] histone modifications and DNA replication at the level of the genome,[6] and combining these with functional assays such as genome editing.[7] The Schübeler group has identified recruitment mechanism for readers and writers of DNA methylation towards a better understanding of the information flow that generates and reads a chromatinized genome.[8][9] More recently, the group has aimed to define how transcription factors can bind and modify chromatin.[10][11]

Awards and honors

edit

1995-1998: Graduate Fellowship, Foundation of the German Chemical Industry
1997: Thesis award, GBF Förderpreis
1998-2000: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
2000-2002: Postdoctoral Fellowship, Rett Syndrome Research Foundation
2006: EMBO Young Investigator Award[12]
2006: Election to the Epigenome Network of Excellence
2007: Friedrich Miescher Prize, Swiss Society for Biochemistry
2008: ERC Starting Grant
2009: Election to EMBO[13]
2011: Novartis VIVA Leading Scientist Award
2012: Election to Academia Europaea
2014: ESCI Award for Excellence in Basic/Translational Research[14]
2015: ERC Advanced Grant[15]
2020: ERC Advanced Grant[16]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Dirk Schübeler appointed as new FMI Director". FMI media release. April 15, 2020.
  2. ^ Interview Dirk Schübeler in bz Basel bz. May 25, 2020
  3. ^ "Beförderungen und neue Titularprofessuren an der Universität Basel". Uni Basel news. December 18, 2020.
  4. ^ Michael Weber, Jonathan J Davies, David Wittig, Edward J Oakeley, Michael Haase, Wan L Lam & Dirk Schübeler (2005) Chromosome-wide and promoter-specific analyses identify sites of differential DNA methylation in normal and transformed human cells. Nature Genetics 39:457-466
  5. ^ Michael B. Stadler*, Rabih Murr*, Lukas Burger, Robert Ivanek, Florian Lienert, Anne Schöler, Erik van Nimwegen, Christiane Wirbelauer, Edward J. Oakeley, Dimos Gaidatzis, Vijay K. Tiwari & Dirk Schübeler (2011) DNA-binding factors shape the mouse methylome at distal regulatory regions. Nature 480, 490-495
  6. ^ Schübeler D, Lorincz MC, Groudine M (2001) Targeting silence – the use of site-specific recombination to introduce in vitro methylated DNA into the genome Science STKE 83: PL1
  7. ^ Krebs AR, Dessus-Babus S, Burger L, Schübeler D (2014) High-throughput engineering of a mammalian genome reveals building principles of methylation states at CG rich regions. Elife. 3:e04094
  8. ^ Baubec T, Colombo DF, Wirbelauer C, Schmidt J, Burger L, Krebs AR, Akalin A, Schübeler D (2015) Genomic profiling of DNA methyltransferases reveals a role for DNMT3B in genic methylation. Nature 520:243-8
  9. ^ Baubec T, Ivanek R, Lienert F, Schübeler D (2013) Methylation-dependent and -independent genomic targeting principles of the MBD protein family. Cell. 153:480-492
  10. ^ Domcke S*, Bardet AF*, Ginno P, Hartl D, Burger L, Schübeler D (2015) Competition between DNA methylation and transcription factors determines binding of NRF1. Nature 528:575-9
  11. ^ Barisic D, Stadler MB, Iurlaro M, Schübeler D (2019) Mammalian ISWI and SWI/SNF selectively mediate binding of distinct transcription factors. Nature 569:136-140
  12. ^ "Europes' best young group leaders win EMBO support". EMBO media release. November 6, 2006.
  13. ^ "EMBO welcomes 66 leading life scientists as members". EMBO media release. June 18, 2015.
  14. ^ "Program 48th ESCI Annual Scientific Meeting". ESCI webpage. May 3, 2014.
  15. ^ "Four ERC Advanced Grants awarded to FMI group leaders". ERC media release. June 30, 2015.
  16. ^ "ERC Advanced Grants for Dirk Schübeler and Nicolas Thomä". ERC media release. March 31, 2020.
edit