Prof. Walter Birchmeier new Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center

Through his own research at the MDC, Prof. Walter 

Birchmeier has been promoting the concept of molecular medicine for many years. 

Disturbances in one gene or pathway often affect various organs and can result 

in severe disease. Molecular-oriented research, the aim of which is to 

understand basic mechanisms of disease processes, must, therefore, extend 

across the boundaries of traditional medicine. 

In the early 1980s, Walter Birchmeier’s laboratory 

discovered a molecule required for the adhesion of epithelial cells. The group 

went on to identify the mechanism by which this molecule is down-regulated in 

cancer, leading to a disruption of epithelial organization and the generation 

of invasive and metastatic tumor cells. Further important findings of his 

research were the identification of signaling molecules which transmit 

information from the cell surface to the nucleus. Such molecules play critical 

roles in both tumorigenesis, as well as in other diseases, such as in 

cardiomyopathies. Furthermore, he showed that certain signal transduction 

pathways control development of the nervous system, production of stem cells in 

the skin, as well as the formation of internal organs. 

Prof. Birchmeier has published more than one hundred 

scientific articles and received several awards for his work including the 

Wilhelm Warner Prize for Cancer Research in 1990, the Meyenburg Prize for 

Cancer Research in 1992, and the German Cancer Prize in 1999. He is a member of 

the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and a corresponding member 

of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS).

Walter Birchmeier was born on July 8, 1943 in Würenlingen 

(Aargau Canton), Switzerland. After working as an elementary school teacher, he 

studied biology at the University of Zürich where he received his PhD degree. 

He moved to the United States in 1973 to do postdoctoral research, first with 

Jeff Schatz at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and later with Jon Singer 

at the University of California in San Diego. He returned to Europe in 1979, 

accepting a position at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland, and, in 1982, 

went to work as the head of a research group at the Friedrich Miescher 

Laboratory of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Tübingen, Germany. In 1988, he was 

appointed as Full Professor for Molecular Cell Biology at the University Clinic 

in Essen, Germany. He has lead his research group at the MDC since 1993 and was 

appointed professor at the Charité Medical School Berlin in 1996. In 1998, he 

became Deputy Scientific Director of the MDC. 

Founded in 1992, the MDC conducts interdisciplinary 

research into cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological disorders 

(Molecular Medicine). Scientists at the MDC apply molecular biology and genetic 

engineering to study genes and their products (i.e., proteins) and their role 

in the onset of complex diseases. Combining basic and clinical research, MDC 

scientists collaborate closely with clinicians of the Charité University 

Medicine and the Helios Klinikum Berlin-Buch. The MDC is a member of the 

Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres and employs a staff of 750. 

It receives 90 per cent of its funding from the German Federal Ministry of 

Education and Research (BMBF), and 10 per cent from the state (Land) of Berlin.

Prof. Walter Birchmeier new Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin (Photographer: David Ausserhofer/​Copyright: MDC)

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• Prof. Walter Birchmeier new Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin