From DNA to RNA, from molecules to human interactions: farewell symposium for Christoph Müller

Overview

This event is reserved for invited guests and EMBL staff.

Conference overview

This one-day symposium celebrates the career and many achievements of one of our most esteemed colleagues, Christoph Müller.

Christoph joined EMBL Grenoble in 1995 as a Group Leader. Five years later, in 2000, he became the Deputy Head of the Grenoble site and an EMBL Senior Scientist. In 2007, he moved to Heidelberg to lead the Structural and Computational Biology Unit, a role he held until 2024. Since 2021, he has also served as Deputy Head of the EMBL Imaging Centre, helping guide the effort that led to its opening in 2022.

Christoph’s scientific journey began at the University of Freiburg, where he studied chemistry and biochemistry and obtained his PhD with Georg E. Schulz, in 1991. His doctoral work on adenylate kinase from E. coli using X-ray crystallography revealed significant conformational changes in the enzyme upon substrate binding. Christoph then joined Stephen C. Harrison’s group at Harvard University for postdoctoral training, where he determined the crystal structure of the transcription factor NFκB bound to DNA.

Throughout his career, Christoph has been driven by a fascination for the complexity of transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes. His research focuses on how transcription factors assemble on DNA, recruit RNA polymerases, and how DNA sequence and epigenetic modifications together regulate gene transcription. His group studies the structure and function of major molecular machines involved in transcription, particularly RNA polymerases I and III and their pre-initiation complexes, using integrated structural biology. Lately, his group has also gained insight into the role of Pol I transcription in nucleolus formation and ribosome assembly, using methods such as cryo-electron tomography and correlative light and electron microscopy.  

Along the way, Christoph has been recognised with several honours: the Steinhofer Award in 2003, election to EMBO in 2005, an ERC Advanced Grant in 2013, and election to the Academia Europaea in 2018. His leadership and scientific vision have played a major role in shaping structural biology at EMBL over three decades.

We are thrilled to bring together many of Christoph’s key scientific colleagues, collaborators, and friends for a memorable day of talks and exchange to mark his formal retirement.