Wolfgang P. Baumeister
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
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Primary Section: 29, Biophysics and Computational Biology Secondary Section: 21, Biochemistry Membership Type:
International Member
(elected 2010)
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Research Interests
Wolfgang Baumeister's research is focussed on the cellular pathways of protein quality control. His laboratory has discovered new macromolecular complexes essential for protein folding and degradation and has contributed in a major way to our understanding of the structure and function of the proteasome. While using a broad array of methods ranging from genomics and proteomics to biochemistry and biophysics, electron microscopy plays a particularly important role in the repertoire of methods in the Baumeister laboratory. His group had, and continues to have, a pioneering role in the development of cryoelectron tomography which is now widely seen as a method of unique potential for visualizing macromolecular complexes in their functional cellular context (in situ structural biology). It holds great promise for bridging the divide that hitherto exists between molecular and cellular structural studies. Currently, the Baumeister laboratory develops correlative light microscopy - electron microscopy approaches as well as new micromachining tools for frozen hydrated samples enabling them to study complex cellular landscapes in unprecedented detail.
