Eckard Wimmer

Eckard Wimmer ( May 22nd, 1936 in Berlin) is an American virologist and biochemist German origin, known for discoveries on the molecular biology of poliovirus and the first chemical synthesis of a virus.

Life

Wimmer studied chemistry at the University of Rostock in East Germany. In 1956 he fled to West Germany because " we knew that the wall is coming". He continued his studies at the University of Göttingen, with a diploma degree in 1959 and his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1962. As a post - graduate student, he was until 1964 an assistant in organic chemistry from the University of Göttingen and then to 1966 at the University of British Columbia as a research Fellow in Biochemistry and 1964-1968 research Associate in Molecular Biology at the University of Illinois. He was an Assistant Professor in 1968 and later associate professor of microbiology at the St. Louis University School of Medicine. In 1969 he was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1974 he was an associate professor and in 1979 professor of microbiology at the School of Medicine of the State University of New York at Stony Brook ( SUNY ). 1984 to 1999 he was its board of its faculty. In 2002 he received the rank of Distinguished Professor.

Wimmer also works with 76 years scientific further (2012 ).

Wimmer is married and has two children. He became an American citizen.

Work

Eckard Wimmer examined the various aspects of the polio virus (and other picornaviruses ) that serve him and his research group as a simple study models of human pathogenic viruses. Thereby reach him several breakthroughs in research.

In 1981 he determined with colleagues, the complete sequence of the RNA genome of poliovirus .. Previously, he had the mechanism of RNA amplification of the virus and the parties engaged in protein enlightened .. He identified the opening sequence of the virus reproduction in the genome (IRES, internal ribosomal entry site).

Wimmer identified and cloned with his group, the receptor to which the polio virus to the cell docks (CD 155) and various antigens of the virus and he and his group are about various aspects of the pathogenesis of the virus.

Was once known for some time that the replication of viruses and this could even be synthesized chemically, in principle, demonstrated Wimmer this 2002 with his group at the case of relatively simply constructed poliovirus, what major media attention was, especially in view of the risks of bioterrorism biological weapons development. First, he and his group succeeded in 1991, the in vitro synthesis of poliovirus in a cell-free environment and 2002 then the total chemical synthesis of a virus ( poliovirus ) .. By injection of the virus synthetically produced in mice, they found no difference to normal polio infection. Wimmer was a trailblazer in the synthetic virology.

In 2006, he suggested that improved vaccines with genetically modified (less infectious ) produce viruses, which they made ​​use of a novel technique, which was applicable when certain viruses such as poliovirus (codon deoptimization, alteration of the codon pairs ratio ). Wimmer cooperates in the computer aided design of vaccines with computer scientists like Steve Skiena of SUNY together and turned the process, for example on the development of vaccines against influenza to.

Rates and Memberships

In 1996 Wimmer the Alexander -von- Humboldt Research Award in 2011 and the M. W. Beijerinck Virology Prize in the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. In 2001 he held the Maurice R. Hilleman Lecture of the Pritzker School of Medicine of the University of Chicago. In 2012 he received the Robert Koch Medal. Wimmer is a member of the Leopoldina (1998), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2008 ), the American Academy of Microbiology ( 1994) and the National Academy of Sciences (2012 ). In 2008 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Research Foundation of the State University of New York.

Writings

• E. Wimmer, S. Mueller, TM Tumpey, JK Taubenberger Synthetic viruses: a new opportunity to understand and preventable viral disease, Nature Biotechnology, Volume 27, 2009, S.1163 -1172
• E. Wimmer, Aniko V. Paul Synthetic poliovirus and other designer viruses: what have we learned from them? Annual Review of Microbiology, Volume 65, 2011, p 583-609, Abstract
• E. Wimmer, Christopher Hellen, X. Cao Genetics of poliovirus, Annual Review of Genetics, Volume 27, 1993, pp. 353-436