Max Birnstiel

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Max L. Birnstiel
gene regulation
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular biology
Institutions
Doctoral advisorAlbert Frey-Wyssling
Notable students

Max Luciano Birnstiel (12 July 1933 – 15 November 2014) was a Swiss

gene enhancer element.[3] Birnstiel died in 2014 of heart failure during cancer treatment.[3]

Early life and education

Birnstiel was born in Brazil in 1933; his father, also Max Birnstiel, was Swiss and his mother, Dalila Varella, was Brazilian. The family moved to Switzerland when the younger Max was five years old, and he was educated in Zurich. He received his Ph.D. in botany in 1959 from

postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology with James Bonner.[1][3]

Academic career

In 1963, Birnstiel was recruited by

Xenopus laevis; this body of work was performed with Ph.D. students Adrian Bird, Michael Grunstein, and Hugh Wallace and led to further study of gene structure in collaboration with Donald Brown. The work has been cited as the first purification of single genes, announced at a meeting in 1965[4]: 15  three years prior to the isolation of the bacterial lac operon,[2] and is noted as a key piece of evidence in establishing the chemical nature of the gene.[4]
: 15 

Returning to Switzerland, Birnstiel accepted a chair position at the then-new Institute of Molecular Biology II at the

enhancer element which he termed the "Modulator".[3][2]

Birnstiel was sought out as a candidate for the directorship of a then-new privately funded institute to be founded in Vienna – not then well regarded as a research hub – with funding from Boehringer Ingelheim and Genentech. In 1986, Birnstiel became the founding director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), which under his leadership became a major center for life sciences research and the biotechnology industry.[3][2][5] Birnstiel served as director at the IMP until 1996, when he retired and was succeeded by Kim Nasmyth.[1][3]

Birnstiel also held positions of service to the broader scientific community as the Chairman of the

EMBO Journal from 1983–90.[1]

In 1998, he and colleagues from IMP founded

Valneva that focuses on vaccine development.[7]

Awards and honors

Birnstiel received numerous awards for his scientific achievements and was regarded in the 1980s as a major figure in the Swiss scientific community.[1][3]

  • 1979:
    Otto Nägeli Prize
  • 1983: Foreign Associate of the
    United States National Academy of Sciences
  • 1987: Member of the
    German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
  • 1994: Wilhelm Exner Medal

Personal life

During his postdoctoral fellowship in the U.S., Birnstiel met and developed a collaboration with a British biologist, Margaret Chipchase, whom he married in 1961 and had two children with - Marcus and Kirsty Birnstiel.

He died in 2014 at age 81, of heart failure following radiation therapy for inoperable cancer.[3][5] Birnstiel was remembered for his love of food and wine and enthusiasm for travel.[2][3]

Legacy

In 2017, the Max Birnstiel Foundation was created to promote training and career development of young researchers in the field of molecular life sciences.[8] In 2019, the Max Birnstiel Foundation and the IMP established the Birnstiel Award for Doctoral Research in Molecular Life Sciences,[9] which was presented for the first time in autumn 2019.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "CV, Max Birnstiel". Institute of Molecular Life Sciences. University of Zurich. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  2. ^
    PMID 25556180
    .
  3. ^
    doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.12.030
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780300074093
    .
  5. ^ a b "Max L. Birnstiel 1933–2014". The Research Institute of Molecular Biology (IMP). Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  6. ^ "History". The Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP). Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  7. ^ "About Valneva". Valneva. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  8. ^ "Max Birnstiel Foundation".
  9. ^ "Birnstiel Award | Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP)".

External links

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