The MDC mourns the death of Prof. Michael Strauss
“The death of Prof. Strauss means that we have not only lost a brilliant scientist, who combined a deep commitment with a breadth of vision, but also a dear and treasured colleague”, explained Prof. Detlev Ganten and Dr. Erwin Jost, MDC board of directors. “We offer our deepest sympathies to his wife and their two children, his parents and friends. Right up to the end, Michael Strauss struggled bravely against his illness and we intend to carry on his work in gene therapy as a tribute to him”.
Prof. Strauss was born in Berlin on January 12th, 1950. He studied biology at the Humboldt University, Berlin, gaining his doctorate in 1977 and his post-doctoral lecturing qualification (Habilitation) in 1987. From 1981 to 1989, he led a research group at Berlin-Buch and spent several periods abroad carrying out research in Great Britain and the USA. This included work at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Royal Postgraduate Medical School (both in London) as well as Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York (USA).
In 1992, Michael Strauss started a five year period as leader of a research group belonging to the Max Planck Gesellschaft at the Humboldt University, Berlin, which was based at the MDC. In 1993, he became head of an international research group at the Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen and, in 1994, he was invited to become Professor of Molecular Cell Biology at the Humboldt University.
His main research interests included the regulation of cell division, the function of tumor-suppressor genes, developing gene therapy for cancer and genetically regulated conditions as well as developing viral vectors for delivering gene therapy.
Prof. Strauss and his collaborators in Berlin, Copenhagen and London discovered a mechanism which controls cell replication and which
malfunctions in virtually all cancer cells. Using this finding, Prof. Strauss and his colleagues developed a new approach to combat malignant diseases using gene technology. He quickly transferred this knowledge from the laboratory bench to good manufacturing practice: he held about 25 patents and, in 1996, he set up a gene therapy company (HepaVec).
Prof. Strauss received a number of honours including the Fichte Prize from the Humboldt University in 1971 and the Virchow Prize (from
the GDR Ministry of Health) in 1984. Also, in 1994, he was made an Honorary Lecturer at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, and, in 1997, he was one of the finalists for the new Future Prize awarded by the President of the German Federal Republic.
In addition, Prof. Strauss received fellowships from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Union Internationale Contre
le Cancer (UICC) and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF). Prof. Strauss also acted as a consultant to many international journals (Nature Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, EMBO Journal, Oncogene, Gene Therapy, Nucleic Acids Research) and for a number of national and international organizations which supported research.
Prof. Strauss was a member of many professional societies, both at home and abroad, including the American Society for Gene Therapy, the European Working Group on Gene Transfer (EWGT) and the Academy of Sciences/USA. In addition, Prof. Strauss was a member of the Scientific Advisory Coucil of the Federal Medical Council for Somatic Gene Therapy and chairman of the “Medical Biotechnology” working group of the German Society for Chemical Instrumentation, Chemical Techniques and Biotechnology (DECHEMA).
Prof. Strauss published over 80 research papers as well as about 30 reviews and book chapters. In 1993, he set up the international gene therapy symposia at Berlin-Buch and he was involved running them ever since; the last one took place in 1998.
Barbara Bachtler
Press and Public Affairs
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC)
Berlin-Buch
Robert-Rössle-Straße 10; 13125 Berlin; Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 30 94 06 — 38 96
Fax: +49 (0) 30 94 06 — 38 33
e‑mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de
