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From DNA to RNA, from molecules to human interactions: farewell symposium for Christoph Müller – Course and Conference Office

EMBL Conference

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

Overview
Speakers
Programme

This symposium is open to current EMBL staff, alumni, and invited guests. Registration is required in advance via the link in the invitation emails and internal communications sent to 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.

Speakers

Claudio Alfieri

The Institute of Cancer Research

Orsolya Barabas

University of Geneva

Switzerland

Martin Beck

Max Planck Institute of Biophysics

Germany

Gino Cingolani

University of Alabama at Birmingham

USA

Patrick Cramer

President of the Max-Planck-Society

Germany

Kristina Djinovic-Carugo

EMBL Grenoble

France

Svetlana Dodonova

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Olivier Duss

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Sebastian Eustermann

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Carlos Fernández-Tornero

Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas

Spain

Mathias Girbig

Philipps-Universität Marburg

Germany

Sebastian Glatt

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Austria

Saulius Klimašauskas

Vilnius University

Lithuania

Nicholas M.I. Taylor

University of Copenhagen

Denmark

Julia Mahamid

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany

Thomas Miller

University of Copenhagen

Denmark

Agata Misiaszek

Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research

Switzerland

Jürg Müller

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

Germany

Carlo Petosa

Institute of Structural Biology

France

Matthias Wilmanns

EMBL Hamburg

Germany

Xiaohan Zhao

EMBL Heidelberg

Germany