Martin Spiess

Martin Spiess ( born October 11, 1955 in Zurich ) is a Swiss biochemist and professor at the Biozentrum, University of Basel.

Life

Martin Spiess studied and graduated at the ETH Zurich in biochemistry. In 1983, he conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1985 again at the ETH Zurich. In 1986 he was an Assistant Professor at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, where he conducts research and teaches since then, since 1993 as associate professor, and since 2004 as Professor of Biochemistry, 2010-2012 Dean of the Philosophical Faculty of Science.

Work

Martin Spiess explores the Topogenese and intracellular transport of membrane proteins in eukaryotic cells. It examines the functioning of the translocon and how proteins in the cell sorted and transported to the provided for them organelles. So Spiess found that the translocon, especially the asymmetric polarity along the pore, the thermodynamic equilibrium between the built and further transport of individual protein segments determined in the membrane. Further studies showed that the orientation of transmembrane segments is defined by flanking charges folding of adjacent segments as well as the hydrophobicity of the sequence itself

Awards

Publications (selection )

Complete list of publications

• H. P. Wessels, M. Spiess: Insertion of a multi- spanning membrane protein Sequentially the occurs and requires only one signal sequence. In: Cell, 1988, 55, pp. 61-70, PMID 2,844,410th
• J. Birk, M. A. Friberg, C. Prescianotto - Baschong, M. Spiess, J. Rutishauser: Dominant pro- vasopressin mutants Causing diabetes insipidus form disulfide -linked fibrillar aggregates in the endoplasmic reticulum. In: J. Cell Sci, 2009, 122, pp. 3994-4002, PMID 19825939. .
• E. Demirci, T. Junne, p Baday, p Bernèche, M. Spiess: Functional asymmetry within the Sec61p translocon. In: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2013, 110 (47 ), PMID 24,191,046th