Obituary for Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Hofmann

Klaus Peter Hofmann

Klaus-Peter Hofmann, an internationally distinguished Biophysicist and Biochemist passed away this summer suddenly and unexpected during a bicycle tour. He is widely regarded as a pioneer to today's understanding of the general signal transmission in cell membranes and his work is considered groundbreaking for pharmaceutical drug development.

Klaus-Peter studied Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München where he received his PhD in 1973. In 1982, he was promoted to Professor of Biophysics at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. After the unification of Germany, he became director at the Institut für Medizinische Physik und Biophysik, Charité, Berlin where he stayed until his retirement. Throughout his scientific career, he published numerous papers, which included also eight publications in Nature and Science. Klaus-Peter was a member of the Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina. In 2012 he received the Aschoff-Medaille, Medizinische Gesellschaft Freiburg. From 2007 to 2008 he served as our president!

Klaus-Peters main research interest focused on the signal conversion during the visual process. Quite early, he could show that in bovine photoreceptor membranes, complex formation of rhodopsin and GTP-binding protein leads to a shift of the photoproduct equilibrium. This work had considerable influence for the GPCR research in general as rhodopsin being the first GPCR whose structure has been later determined. Klaus-Peter shifted his research to crystallography studies on rhodopsin and proteins involved in the visual cascade. In his final review, published in 2023 he and his colleague summarises the amazing properties of vision, while focussing on questions still to be resolved.

Klaus-Peter was a dedicated teacher for his students, a supportive mentor to his coworkers, and internationally highly regarded and respected by his colleagues. He is and will continue to be, sorely missed not only for the scientist he was but also for his open and friendly manner. He was inspiration and thoughtful advisor for several of us especially during his time at the biophysics institute in Freiburg in early stages of our carriers. This “Freiburg connection” continuous than live long. We will miss the thoughtful and inspiring conversations with him. Our thoughts are with the mourning family.

Klaus Gerwert and Martin Engelhard

Symposium 2023 Licht in der Biologie - Photosynthese, Sehprozesse und neuronale Anwendungen

LICHT IN DER BIOLOGIE – PHOTOSYNTHESE, SEHPROZESSE UND NEURONALE ANWENDUNGEN

Symposium 2023

Die Hector Fellow Academy lädt zu ihrem 8. Symposium, das am 6. Juli 2023 um 18 Uhr in Berlin stattfinden wird, ein. Die öffentliche Abendveranstalt ,per Livestream übertragen, wird sich dem Thema "Licht in der Biologie – Photosynthese, Sehprozesse und neuronale Anwendungen" widmen.

Auf dem Programm stehen folgende Vorträge:

„Abenteuer Photosynthese“ von Prof. Dr. Athina Zouni, Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
„Wie Tiere die Welt sehen“ von Dr. Lauren Sumner-Rooney, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
„Optogenetik, zur Untersuchung von Lernen und Gedächtnis“ von Prof. Dr. Hannah Monyer, Klinische Neurobiologie, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg; Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum

Moderation: Dr. Philip Häusser, TV-Moderator (u.a. Terra X Lesch & Co.) und Buchautor

Die Veranstaltungssprachen sind Deutsch und Englisch. Eine Simultanübersetzung in beide Sprachen wird angeboten.

Prof. Dr. Peter Hegemann ist Leiter der Arbeitsgruppe für experimentelle Biophysik und Hertie-Senior-Professor für Neurowissenschaften an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Der weltweit führende Experte der Photobiologie gilt als Mitbegründer der Optogenetik. Er wird der wissenschaftliche Gastgeber des Symposiums 2023 sein. Peter Hegemann konnte Dr. Lauren Sumner-Rooney (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin), Prof. Dr. Athina Zouni (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) sowie Prof. Dr. Hannah Monyer (Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg und Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum) für spannende Vorträge gewinnen.

Lauren Sumner-Rooney ist Emmy Noether Junior Group Leader am Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Ihr derzeitiger Forschungsschwerpunkt liegt auf den parallelen Veränderungen von Augen und Gehirn bei Tieren, die in unterschiedlichen Lichtumgebungen leben, von adleräugigen Jägern bis hin zu blinden Höhlenbewohnern. Athina Zouni ist Professorin am Institut für Biologie an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen in der Biophysik der Photosynthese. Hannah Monyer ist Professorin am Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg und am Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum in Heidelberg. Sie ist eine der international führenden Wissenschaftler*innen auf dem Gebiet der Hirnforschung. Der Schwerpunkt ihrer Forschung liegt auf den molekularen Mechanismen, die zu synchronen neuronalen Netzwerkaktivitäten führen und somit auch kognitive Prozesse wie Lernen und Erinnern ermöglichen.

Die jährlich stattfindenden Symposien der Hector Fellow Academy zielen darauf ab, aktuelle wissenschaftliche Fragestellungen in einen gesellschaftspolitischen Kontext zu stellen. Diskussionsrunden fördern den Dialog zwischen Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit und tragen dazu bei, zukunftsweisende Diskurse anzustoßen.

Wir freuen uns, Sie zum Symposium 2023 begrüßen zu dürfen!

Anmeldungen online unter https://hector-fellow-academy.de/kommende-symposien/symposium-2023/

Symposium 2023 - Licht in der Biologie – Photosynthese, Sehprozesse und neuronale Anwendungen - Hector Fellow Academy (hector-fellow-academy.de)

Klaus Arnold Publication Prize

Dr. Klaus Arnold, who was head of the Institute for Medical Physics and Biophysics from 1984 to 2007, was one of Europe's outstanding biophysicists. His name is linked to scientific achievements over many decades, with important contributions in Membrane Biophysics, Biophysics of Biological Tissues, NMR Spectroscopy and Mass Spectroscopy, to name just a few. He pioneered new techniques and experiments and conquered new fields of research for young biophysicists. Klaus Arnold was born in 1942 and passed away in January 2012. In honor of his contributions to the field of Biophysics, a group of Klaus Arnold's friends have set up a fund to support the careers of young biophysicists (Ph.D. students and young postdoctoral researchers) in Germany. Beginning in 2012, a prize is awarded biannually by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Biophysik to the first author of an outstanding publication by a young scientist working in Germany. The prize comprises a 500 € award and a certificate presented at the National Meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Biophysik.

Nominations with a short explanatory statement, the candidate's CV and a reprint of the publication nominated for the Klaus Arnold Publication Prize should be submitted to

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Biophysik (DGfB)
c/o Prof. Dr. Daniel Huster
Leipzig University
Medical Faculty
Institute of Medical Physics and Biophysics
Härtelstr. 16-18
04107 Leipzig.

The deadline for the next nominations is 31 August 2018.

780. WE-Heraeus-Seminar Developments in Advanced Microscopy and Spectroscopy Methods for Medicine

Developments in Advanced Microscopy and Spectroscopy Methods for Medicine

780. WE-Heraeus-Seminar

12 Feb - 16 Feb 2023

Where:

Physikzentrum Bad Honnef

Scientific organizers:

Prof. Dr. Tilman Kottke, U Bielefeld • Prof. Dr. Markus Sauer, U Würzburg • Prof. Dr. Joachim Heberle, FU Berlin

Diagnostic techniques in medicine are dominated by analysis of body fluids, by tissue staining for optical microscopy, and by the range of omics approaches. However, these methods represent only a part of the plethora of biophysical methods on biological systems that are continuously being developed. Accordingly, more methods need to be translated into medical application for diagnosis considering the modern challenges of individualized medicine. Ideally, these approaches should be non-invasive, applicable to living systems and yield complementary information to existing standard procedures.

In this seminar, we bring together leading experts in modern, evolving fields such as super-resolution microscopy, near-field microscopy and in-cell spectroscopy with colleagues from medicine to discuss latest advances in biophysical techniques and their possible application to medical questions. Challenges remaining for translation into routine procedures will be discussed.

The conference language will be English. The Wilhelm and Else Heraeus-Foundation bears the cost of full-board accommodation for all participants.

LINK: https://www.we-heraeus-stiftung.de/veranstaltungen/developments-in-advanced-microscopy-and-spectroscopy-methods-for-medicine/

New look of the DGfB

Dear DGfB members, dear Biophysics-enthusiasts,

The German Society for Biophysics has a new look.

New logo

Three new logo designs were suggested and voting among the DGfB members has been very close. All three designs received around 30% of votes. At this point, we would sincerely like to thank everybody for voting!

New website

Most notably, as you might have already seen, we have revised our website. Next to some more inconspicuous improvements we made the following changes:
• The new website is encrypted to guarantee secure logins/registrations[OT1] .
• Now, all information about the DGfB annual and section meetings can be found on our website and registration for these meetings will also occur via the new site.
• All pages are available in German and English. Information regarding international conferences consistently composed in English.
• The website is now also optimized for mobile devices.
• Informational content is more accessible and better structured.

We sincerely hope that you like the new website and ask you to report any problems or mistakes as well as new content you would like to be posted (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Best regards,

The DGfB board