Honorary doctorate conferred on Thomas J. Jentsch
Prof. Thomas J. Jentsch, a scientist at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) and the Charité, received this recognition along with the neuroscientist Prof. Mark Hallet, M.D., of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland (United States). Both have contributed “significantly to advances in neuroscience,” says Uwe Koch-Gromus, dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Hamburg.
Jentsch heads the Physiology and Pathology of Ion Transport research team at the FMP and MDC. He is recognized as a world leader in research on ion channels and has received numerous awards for his work in the fields of nephrology, neurology and physiology. Just recently – in March 2017 – Jentsch received his second ERC Advanced Grant, which he will use to carry out follow-up studies on the VRAC channel, which his team identified a few years ago, and to determine the molecular composition of other important channels.
Jentsch spent many productive years at the UKE. From 1988 to 2006 he was based at the UKE’s Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg (ZMNH), and served for several years as the ZMNH’s director. The honorary doctorate ceremony took place during the Hamburg Neuroscience Symposium.