Matthias Mann
Matthias Mann ( born October 10, 1959 in Thuine, Lower Saxony ) is a German physicist and biochemist who researches mainly on mass spectrometry and its applications in proteomics. He is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich. The database of " Highly Cited Researcher " by the Institute for Scientific Information lists him as one of the 250 most-cited scientists in his field.
Life
He studied physics and mathematics at the University of Göttingen. He received his Ph.D. in 1988 at Yale University with the Nobel Laureate John Fenn on the mass spectrometry of high molecular weight compounds. Subsequently, he was post-doctoral fellow at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and 1992-1997 Group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory ( EMBL). From 1998 to 2005 he was a full professor at the University of Southern Denmark. Since 2003 he is Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society. He also conducts research at the University of Copenhagen.
Work
Man developed a mass spectrometry method to quickly determine the proteins of a cell in the body. He used the electrospray method of his PhD John Fenn, in which an electrostatic voltage for the separation of proteins is used as a thermal evaporation as in ordinary mass spectrometers in proteins is not possible.
Thus he succeeded in 2008 with his staff, to decrypt the 4400 proteins of the yeast cell (determination of the proteome ), and he works with the international Human Proteome Project, to the full listing of the proteins of the human body ( magnitude probably about 100,000 ). The method also opens up new possibilities in medical diagnostics, since the protein pattern of the cell changes in disease and thus can serve as a "fingerprint " for them. Specifically, the method promises to revolutionize cancer.
Man examines currently (2011) with his method also react as muscle cells to insulin.
Honors and Awards
Man received numerous awards for his scientific work, including: