Karin Mölling (often cited in English as Moelling; born 7 April 1943 in

Meldorf Meldorf (; Holsatian: ''Meldörp'' or ''Möldörp'') is a town in western Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, that straddles the river Miele in the district of Dithmarschen. Overview Meldorf was first mentioned in writing before 1250 AD. In 1265 it ...

Dithmarschen Dithmarschen (, ; archaic English: ''Ditmarsh''; ; ) is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, and Steinburg, by the ...

, Germany) is a German

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

whose research focused on

retrovirus A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. After invading a host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase e ...

es, particularly

human immunodeficiency virus The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of th ...

(HIV). She was a full professor and director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

from 1993 to 2008. She is retired but retains affiliations with the University of Zurich and with the

Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics is a research institute for molecular genetics based in Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Max Planck Institute network of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. Departments and re ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Education and career

Mölling was born in

, Germany in 1943. She received a Diploma in

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...

in 1968 from the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsator ...

. After a fellowship for training in molecular biology at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, she returned to Germany for her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Virus Research (now the

Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ( ...

), awarded in 1972. She was a

postdoctoral fellow A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

at the

Robert Koch Institute The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is a German federal government agency and research institute responsible for disease control and prevention. It is located in Berlin and Wernigerode. As an upper federal agency, it is subordinate to the Federa ...

and later at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...

, where she took her

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

in 1977. She began her independent research career as a group leader at the

in 1976 and remained there till 1993, becoming a Heisenberg Fellow in 1981 and a permanent group leader in 1983. In 1993 she became a full professor and director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the

and held these positions until 2008. She continued as a group leader at Zurich and a Fellow at MPI until 2011. As of 2014 she retained affiliations with both institutions. During her academic career Mölling also co-founded several

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

companies, was involved in a

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

for an

HIV vaccine The HIV vaccine is a combination antiretroviral vaccine that protects people who are HIV-negative and at high risk of infection from HIV infection. According to the WHO, "every minute, one person in the world dies from AIDS-related causes." Ac ...

candidate, and supervised around 100

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

and PhD students.

Research

Mölling's research interests focused primarily on

es, particular

(HIV), on which she began work as a graduate student. She is well known for her discovery of the

ribonuclease H Ribonuclease H (abbreviated RNase H or RNH) is a family of non-sequence-specific endonuclease enzymes that catalyze the cleavage of RNA in an RNA/DNA substrate via a hydrolytic mechanism. Members of the RNase H family can be found in nearly al ...

activity of

reverse transcriptase A reverse transcriptase (RT) is an enzyme used to convert RNA genome to DNA, a process termed reverse transcription. Reverse transcriptases are used by viruses such as HIV and hepatitis B to replicate their genomes, by retrotransposon mobi ...

, which is required for viral proliferation. Her work in this area led to the development of a

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

-based candidate

for which she led

s. She has also worked on

oncogene An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.

s, leading to the isolation of the

Myc ''Myc'' is a family of regulator genes and proto-oncogenes that code for transcription factors. The ''Myc'' family consists of three related human genes: ''c-myc'' ( MYC), ''l-myc'' ( MYCL), and ''n-myc'' ( MYCN). ''c-myc'' (also sometimes r ...

transcription factor In molecular biology, a transcription factor (TF) (or sequence-specific DNA-binding factor) is a protein that controls the rate of transcription (genetics), transcription of genetics, genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA, by binding t ...

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

; on virus diagnostics; and more recently on the evolutionary history of retroviruses and retrotransposons.

Awards and honors

Mölling has received a number of academic recognitions during her career: * 1981: Vincenz Czerny Prize * 1982: Richtzenhain Prize * 1983: Member,

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 2,100 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

* 1986:

Meyenburg Prize The Meyenburg Prize is awarded for outstanding achievements in cancer research by the Meyenburg Foundation in support of the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg (DKFZ), which is the largest biomedical research institution in Germany. The pri ...

* 1987:

Aronson Prize The Aronson Prize () is a prize awarded for achievements in microbiology and immunology. It was established by the will of the pediatrician and bacteriologist Hans Aronson and has been awarded since 1921. Aronson bequeathed a large part of his es ...

* 1992: Ansmann Prize * 2008: SwissAward * 2008-09: Fellow,

Berlin Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin () is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled after the original IAS in Princeto ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molling, Karin Women virologists German virologists Living people 1943 births People from Meldorf Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Berlin