Regine Kahmann facts for kids

Regine Kahmann (born October 20, 1948, in Staßfurt, Germany) is a famous German scientist. She studies tiny living things like bacteria and fungi. From 2000 to 2019, she was a director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany. In 2020, she became a special Foreign Member of the Royal Society, which is a very old and respected group of scientists in the UK.

At first, Regine Kahmann studied microbiology, which is the study of very small living things, and viruses that infect bacteria. Later, she focused on a fungus called corn smut (Ustilago maydis). This fungus causes a disease in maize (corn) plants. Scientists now use corn smut as a "model organism" to learn more about how fungi cause diseases in plants.

Early Life and Education

Regine Kahmann was born in Staßfurt, Germany, in 1948. Her parents were farmers. In 1952, her family moved from East Germany to West Germany. They settled in Rassau, near Uelzen.

After finishing school in Uelzen in 1967, Kahmann went to the University of Göttingen. She studied biology there, focusing on microbiology, until 1972. She then earned her doctorate degree between 1972 and 1974. Her research was about the structure of a specific type of DNA.

Starting Her Scientific Journey

After getting her doctorate, she went to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the United States. There, she became a Junior Group Leader in 1976. This was an important step in her research career.

A Career in Science

From 1980 to 1982, Regine Kahmann worked as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany. In 1982, she started her own research group at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin.

She later became a professor of genetics at the Ludwig Maximilians University in 1992. In 2000, she became a scientific member and director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. She also became a professor of genetics at the Philipps University in Marburg in 2001. She continued to lead important research until 2019.

Discoveries in Research

Regine Kahmann's main work is in molecular phytopathology. This field looks at the tiny, molecular reasons why plants get sick. She studies how very small living things, like microbes and viruses, infect plant cells. She also looks at which genes play a role in these infections.

Understanding Plant Diseases

One of her big research areas is studying the infection process of corn smut (Ustilago maydis). This is a parasitic fungus that causes tumors, or growths, on maize plants. Her lab works to understand exactly how this fungus attacks and makes the corn sick.

She also studied a virus called phage mu. This virus can infect many types of bacteria. Regine Kahmann showed how this virus decides which host it can infect. She discovered that a special part of the virus's DNA can flip around. This flipping action helps the virus choose its host. She also found that a protein from the bacteria helps this process. Her work on this topic is considered a major scientific achievement.

Important Memberships

Regine Kahmann has been invited to join many important scientific groups because of her excellent work. Some of these include:

• 1991 European Molecular Biology Organization
• 1998 Academia Europaea
• 2008 German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 2020 Royal Society (as a foreign member)

Awards and Honors

Regine Kahmann has received many awards for her contributions to science:

• 1993 Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation
• 1997 Dannie Heineman Prize
• 1998 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1999 Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
• 2011 Gregor Mendel Medal