Workplace: Biozentrum, University of Basel

Link(s): About the Research Group

Short biography: Mike Hall earned a PhD in Molecular Genetics from Harvard University in 1981 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and the University of California, San Francisco. He was appointed an Assistant Professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel in 1987, and became a Full Professor in 1992. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and has received numerous prestigious awards including the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2009), the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2014), the Canada Gairdner International Award for Biomedical Research (2015), the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2017), and the Sjöberg Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2020).

Current activities/ scientific goals: Mike Hall is a pioneer in the fields of TOR signaling and cell growth control. In 1991, Hall and colleagues discovered TOR (Target of Rapamycin) and subsequently elucidated its role as a central controller of cell growth and metabolism. TOR is a highly conserved, nutrient- and insulin-activated protein kinase. The discovery of TOR led to a fundamental change in how one thinks of cell growth. It is not a spontaneous process that just happens when building blocks (nutrients) are available, but rather a highly regulated, plastic process controlled by TOR-dependent signaling pathways. As a central controller of cell growth and metabolism, mammalian TOR (mTOR) plays a key role in development and aging, and is implicated in disorders such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. Insights on the mTOR signaling network have led to new therapeutic strategies.

Workplace: Biozentrum, University of Basel

Link(s): About the Research Group

Contact: Twitter

Biography: Timm Maier received a Diploma in Biochemistry in 1999 from the University of Tübingen. He obtained his Doctorate with Prof. Dr. Wolfram Saenger from the Free University of Berlin in 2003. He then took up a postdoctoral position with Prof. Nenad Ban at ETH Zürich, where he was promoted in 2006 to team leader and lecturer. In 2011, Maier accepted a tenure-track professorship at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. Since 2016 he is Associate Professor of Structural Biology at the Biozentrum.

Current activities/ scientific goals: His research focuses on discovering functional principles of regulatory protein complexes and multienzymes in cellular metabolism. His team analyzes protein function at the cellular and molecular level using biophysical and computational methods combined with light and electron microscopy imaging and X-ray crystallography. Timm Maier is best known for structural studies of eukaryotic fatty acid biosynthesis and metabolic regulation with important implications for metabolic diseases and cancer. He revealed the architectures of the two protein complexes mTORC1 and mTORC2, in which the mammalian TOR protein exerts its function to control cell growth and metabolism. Maier’s structural studies of polyketide synthases, giant microbial assembly lines for antibiotic biosynthesis, provided core insights for engineering the sustainable production of novel bioactive molecules.

Workplace: Roche pRED, Therapeutic Modalities (TMo) - Large Molecule Research (LMR)

Short biography: PhD in structural biology from the University of Munich, PostDoc in electron microscopy at the MPI for Biochemistry, Martinsried. Joined Roche’s Large Molecule Research (LMR) unit in 2006 and held various scientist positions in protein analytics and engineering with a focus on designing, predicting and assessing biotherapeutics with ideal developability properties. Since 2020, Head of the department for computational engineering within the Discovery unit of LMR.

Current activities/ scientific goals: My team applies computational methods to design, optimize and assess therapeutic proteins, e.g. antibodies, bispecific antibodies, immune modulators, etc., with custom-made properties. We use state of the art structure and property modeling, molecular dynamics and AI-powered sequence repertoire analyses to support project teams with guidance to develop molecules ready for sophisticated modes of action.

Workplace: Roche pRED, Oncology - Cancer Immunotherapy

Contact: LinkedIn

Biography: Stephan Gasser is a senior principal scientist at pRED in Schlieren (RICZ). He is a co-head of the cancer immunotherapy discovery 4 department at RICZ. The department is interested in using innate immune pathways to elicit or boost anti-tumor T cell responses, the tumor microenvironment and the identification of new targets using CRISPR.

Current activities/ scientific goals: Stephan works at the Roche Innovation Center Zurich, a location that hosts 185 employees working in multinational teams. The research groups work on different fields such as tumour immunology, pharmacology, molecular biology, cell and protein engineering, process biochemistry, cell biological assays, and histology. Stephan's group focuses on product development, linking scientific concepts and validation to the corresponding studies. One major focus activity is the development of engineered antibodies that address unmet clinical needs in oncology.