Jan Löwe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Professor Jan Löwe
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| Director of the MRC-LMB | |
| Assumed office 2018 |
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| Preceded by | Sir Hugh Pelham |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 July 1967 |
| Nationality | German |
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| Known for | Structural biology of bacterial cytoskeletons |
| Awards | EMBO Member (2004) EMBO Gold Medal (2007) |
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| Thesis | Crystal structure of the 20S proteasome from T. acidophilum (1995) |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Huber |
Jan Löwe was born on July 14, 1967. He is a German scientist who studies molecules and their structures. He is currently the Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK. He took on this important role in April 2018. Dr. Löwe is famous for his work on bacterial cytoskeletons. These are like the "skeletons" inside tiny bacteria.
Jan Löwe's Education Journey
Jan Löwe studied Chemistry at the University of Hamburg and earned his diploma in 1992. He then went on to get his PhD in 1995 from the Technische Universität München. His PhD work focused on the structure of the proteasome. This research was done at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry.
Career and Research Discoveries
After his PhD, Jan Löwe worked for a short time at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. In 1996, he moved to the MRC-LMB. There, he started working on crystallizing FtsZ. This is a special protein found in bacteria. It is similar to tubulin, which is found in other living things.
In 1998, Dr. Löwe became a group leader at MRC-LMB. His team mainly studies the structure and biology of bacterial cytoskeletons. They have also made big discoveries about how cells divide. This includes how DNA is shared in both simple and complex cells. In April 2018, he became the Director of MRC-LMB. Before that, he was the Deputy Director and a head of the Structural Studies Division.
In 2018, he was also given the title of Honorary Professor at the University of Cambridge. This recognized his work in structural and molecular microbiology.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Jan Löwe has received many awards for his important scientific work:
- 1996: Otto-Hahn Medal from the Max Planck Society
- 2002: Leverhulme Prize for Biochemistry
- 2004: Became a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO)
- 2007: Received the EMBO Gold Medal
- 2008: Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
- 2011: Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award
- 2012: Became a Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge
- 2013: Became a Fellow of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
