Dieter Oesterhelt (10 November 1940 – 28 November 2022) was a German biochemist. From 1980 until 2008, he was director of the

Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry The Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society located in Martinsried, a suburb of Munich. The institute was founded in 1973 by the merger of three formerly independent institutes: the Max Planck ...

, Martinsried.

Biography

Oesterhelt studied chemistry at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

from 1959 to 1963. From 1964 to 1967 he worked at the Institute of Biochemistry at the same university under

Feodor Lynen Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen (; 6 April 19116 August 1979) was a German biochemist. In 1964 he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Konrad Bloch for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of cholesterol and ...

. He was then a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Chemistry until 1969. From 1969 to 1973 he worked as an academic adviser at the Institute for Biochemistry at the University of Munich and carried out work on the structure, function and biosynthesis of the purple membrane of

Halobacterium salinarum ''Halobacterium salinarum'', formerly known as ''Halobacterium cutirubrum'' or ''Halobacterium halobium'', is an extremely halophilic marine obligate aerobic archaeon. Despite its name, this is not a bacterium, but a member of the domain Archaea ...

. In 1975 he became a junior research group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory in Tübingen. From 1976 to 1979 he was a full professor at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

. Oesterhelt has been a member of the

Max Planck Society The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...

and director of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, since 1980. He retired in 2008. In 1969, Oesterhelt went to the University of California at

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, where Walther Stoeckenius were studying the cell membrane of

. He proved that retinaldehyde was contained in a protein of the so-called "purple membrane" of Halobacterium. This protein was isolated and called

bacteriorhodopsin Bacteriorhodopsin is a protein used by Archaea, most notably by haloarchaea, a class of the Euryarchaeota. It acts as a proton pump; that is, it captures light energy and uses it to move protons across the membrane out of the cell. The resulting ...

. After returned to Germany, Oesterhelt showed that physiological function of bacteriorhodopsin is to pump protons out of the cell. Members of his department at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry researched the structure-function relationships of membrane proteins and other microbial rhodopsins such as

halorhodopsin Halorhodopsin is a light-gated ion pump, specific for chloride ions, found in archaea, known as halobacteria. It is a seven-transmembrane retinylidene protein from microbial rhodopsin family. It is similar in tertiary structure (but not primary seq ...

, which later became a molecular tool in

optogenetics Optogenetics is a biological technique to control the activity of neurons or other cell types with light. This is achieved by expression of light-sensitive ion channels, pumps or enzymes specifically in the target cells. On the level of individu ...

. In 2021 he received the

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for a fundamental discovery that opens up a new area of biomedical science. The award frequently precedes a Nobel Prize in Medicine; almost 5 ...

. Oesterhelt died on 28 November 2022, at the age of 82.

Honors and awards

* Member of the Deutschen Akademie der Technikwissenschaften (acatech) * 1983:

Liebig Medal The Liebig Medal (German: ''Liebig-Denkmünze'') was established by the (''Verein Deutscher Chemiker'') in 1903 to celebrate the centenary of Justus von Liebig. Since 1946 it has been awarded by the Society of German Chemists (''Gesellschaft De ...

* 1989: Member of the

Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

and the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

* 1990: Karl Heinz Beckurts-Preis * 1991:

Otto Warburg Medal The Otto Warburg Medal is awarded annually by the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (German: ''Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie'' or ''GBM'') to honour scientists who have contributed important work in the field ...

* 1991: Corresponding Member of the Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste * 1993: Gregor-Mendel-Medal of the Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina * 1998: Alfried-Krupp-Wissenschaftspreis * 2000:

Werner von Siemens Ring The Werner von Siemens Ring (in German orthography, Werner-von-Siemens-Ring) is one of the highest awards for technical sciences in Germany. It has been awarded from 1916 to 1941 and since 1952 about every three years by the foundation ''Stiftung ...

* 2002: Paul-Karrer-Lecture and Medal * 2004: Officer's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

* 2011: Wissenschaftspreis: Forschung zwischen Grundlagen und Anwendungen * 2016: Bayerischer Maximiliansorden für Wissenschaft und Kunst * 2021:

Biography

Honors and awards

References

Further reading