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Dirk Schübeler new director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research
The Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) has appointed genome researcher Prof. Dr. Dirk Schübeler as its new director.
20 April 2020
Dirk Schübeler is an internationally renowned scientific leader in the field of gene regulation and has been acting as the FMI's co-director ad interim together with Professor Silvia Arber since March 2019. Dirk Schübeler replaces Professor Susan Gasser, who stepped down as the FMI’s Director after 15 years leading the institute.
Born in 1969 in Helmarshausen (Germany), Schübeler studied biology at the Technical University of Braunschweig, where he obtained his PhD in gene regulation in 1998. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle (USA) before joining the FMI in 2003 as junior group leader. Schübeler has been senior group leader at the FMI since 2008 and was appointed adjunct professor of epigenetics at the University of Basel in 2011.
Schübeler’s research focuses on understanding gene regulation and the function of chromatin. He received several awards for his research including the Friedrich Miescher Prize of the Swiss Society for Biochemistry (2007), Novartis VIVA Leading Scientist Award (2011), the ESCI Award for Excellence in Basic/Translational Research (2014) and three grants of the European Research Council.
Associated Institute
The FMI was founded in 1970 and is an independent foundation affiliated with the University of Basel and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. To mark its 50th anniversary, the FMI plans an international symposium in September 2020 entitled Dedicated to Science and Education for 50 years.
