skip to content

Faculty of Mathematics and Natural SciencesInstitute of Biochemistry - AG Prof. Riemer

Jan Riemer

Jan was born in Erfurt (Thuringia, former GDR), where he also went to High school. After graduation, he moved to Tübingen in the south of Germany for his studies of Biochemistry (from 1997). During his studies, he went for one year to the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), where he fell in love with cysteines and disulphide bond formation in E.coli in the laboratory of James Bardwell. Jan performed his Diploma thesis in the laboratory of Ralf Dringen at the University of Tübingen, studying the release of glutathione disulphide from astrocytes during oxidative stress. After his Diploma thesis, Jan spent four months at Monash University in the lab of Stephen Robinson and developed an iron quantification assay, before he performed an internship with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). From November 2003, Jan performed his PhD thesis in the laboratory of Lars Ellgaard, first at the ETH Zurich and later at the University of Copenhagen. In Lars’ lab, Jan worked on the redox regulation of oxidative protein folding and ER-associated degradation. In 2008, Jan moved to Kaiserslautern where he became a group leader and assistant professor in the Department Cell Biology (mentor: Johannes Herrmann). During this time, he began working on mitochondrial biogenesis, oxidative protein folding in mitochondria and redox signalling. In 2015, Jan moved to Cologne where he started as associate professor (W2) and in 2022 became full professor (W3).

 

Education and Professional Experience

  • Since 2022: Full Professor for Biochemistry (W3) at the University of Cologne
  • 2015 - 2022: Associate Professor for Biochemistry (W2) at the University of Cologne
  • 2012 - 2015: Assistant Professor for Cellular Biochemistry (W1) at the University of Kaiserslautern
  • 2008 - 2012: Group leader at the Department of Biology at the University of Kaiserslautern
  • 2007 - 2008: Post-Doc at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) with Prof. Lars Ellgaard
  • 2003 - 2007: PhD thesis at the ETH Zurich (Switzerland, 11.2003 – 01.2006) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark, 01.2006 – 10.2007) with Prof. Lars Ellgaard and Prof. Ari Helenius
  • 2003: Research stay at the Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) with Prof. Stephen Robinson and Dr. Ralf Dringen
  • 2003: Exam in Biochemistry from the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (Diploma thesis with Dr. Ralf Dringen)
  • 2000 - 2001: Research stay at the University of Michigan (USA) with Prof. James Bardwell
  • 1997 - 2003: Studies of Biochemistry at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
  • 1996: Abitur (University entrance exam) from the Albert Schweitzer Gymnasium, Erfurt

Scholarships and Honours

  • 2017: Otto-Meyerhof-Price of the German Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM)
  • 2010 - 2012: EMBO Long Term Fellowship
  • 2004 - 2006: PhD Fellowship of the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (B.I.F.)
  • 2000 - 2001: Travel scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) for the stay in the USA
  • 1998 - 2003: Scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation

Professional and Administrative Duties

  • Since 2023: Director of the Department of Chemistry, MNF at the UoC
  • Since 2023: Member of the FEBS Advanced Courses Committee
  • Since 2020: Speaker of the DFG-funded graduate school RTG2550, “reloc”
  • Since 2020: Speaker of the integrated graduate school of the CRC1218/SFB1218, “mitoRTG”
  • Since 2019: Speaker of the Cologne Graduate School for Chemistry (CGSC)
  • Since 2018: Head of the Master for Biochemistry Examination Committee at UoC
  • Since 2017: Speaker of the study group ”Redox biology” of the ”Deutsche Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie (GBM)”
  • Since 2015: Member of the steering committees of the CRC/SFB1218 and of the graduate school of the CRC/SFB1218 (mitoRTG)