Franz-Ulrich Hartl

Dr. Franz-Ulrich Hartl is the Director and a Professor of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. Hartl’s research centers on the components and mechanisms of protein folding in the cell. Protein folding is required for the realization of genetic information at the level of functional proteins and as such is one of the most fundamental reactions in all of biology. Hartl’s long-term goal is to reach a complete understanding, at the structural and functional level, of how the machinery of molecular chaperones assists in co- and post-translational protein folding. Hartl’s work led to the discovery that chaperonins, a class of molecular chaperones with cylindrical architecture, facilitate folding by transiently enclosing unfolded polypeptides in a cage, a mechanism that effectively prevents inter-molecular protein aggregation. Using a range of methods from biophysics to cell biology, Hartl ultimately seeks to decipher the rules by which the thousands of different proteins in the cytosol utilize the chaperone machinery for de novo folding and assembly. More recently, he has begun to study the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders, such as polyglutamine diseases and Parkinson's disease, which are caused by aberrant protein folding and are associated with the formation of protein aggregates. The focus of this research is to understand how protein misfolding causes cytotoxicity and how molecular chaperones act as protective modulators. The Hartl laboratory seeks to harness the power of the chaperone machinery for applications in biotechnological protein production and in combating disease. Hartl has received widespread recognition for his work, including in Lipmann Award, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Ernst Jung Prize, the Koerber European Science Award, the Wiley Prize, the Rosenstiel Award, the Horwitz Prize, the Otto Warburg Medal, the van Gysel Prize, the Heineken Prize, and an Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany. He is a member of numerous honorary societies, including the American Academy of Microbiology, and National Academy of Sciences of the USA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Japanese Biochemical Society, the Bavarian Academy of Science, and the Academy of Science of Nordrhein-Westfalen in addition to his American Academy of Arts and Science membership. His publications appear in prominent journals such as Biological Chemistry, Nature, and Science.