Gunnar Dittmar

I earned my PhD from the Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg in 1997 for my work which I performed at the German Cancer Research Center (dkfz) in Heidelberg. The focus of my PhD work was the regulation of the cell cycle. To continue this, I joined the department of cell biology at Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA). As a post-doctoral fellow funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), I focused my work on regulated degradation during the cell cycle and the regulation by ubiquitin-like molecules. In 1999 I joined the teaching faculty of Harvard Medical School and worked as an instructor in cell biology. I was able to secure funding for my research with a grant from the Charles-King trust. In 2003 I joined the Max-Delbrück Center for molecular medicine (MDC) in Berlin (Germany), starting my research group funded by a grant from the DFG. In addition to my research group, I started in 2007 to build up the mass spectrometry core unit of the MDC, which was set up to provide proteomics as a service to the research community. In 2014 I created on top of the MDC core unit the proteomics core facility of the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), a joint venture of the MDC and the Charité University Hospital. The core facility was focused on providing proteomics to the joined translational projects. In 2016 I joined the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) as the head of the newly formed genomics and proteomics unit. I used the opportunity and created the new bioinformatics group by integrating personnel from the genomics and proteomics group and the department of oncology. I started the joined sequencing center LuxGen a joint venture of the LIH and the laboratoir national de santé (LNS), to address the rising demand for sequencing services within Luxembourg. Starting in 2018, I created and led the quantitative biology unit (QBU). The unit consisted of two branches, three research laboratories, and five core facilities, combining all high-end technologies in one unit to ensure the rapid transfer of knowledge from the research groups to the core facilities. In 2020 the QBU was integrated into the TMOH screening platform, and I decided to join the department of infection and immunity to work on the regulatory function of ubiquitin in immunology using different proteomics methods. In 2011 I was appointed visiting professor at the Technion University in Haifa (Israel) for my engagement in teaching proteomics, which is continuing. Since 2019 I am an affiliated professor for proteomics at the University of Luxembourg.