German biochemist
Franz-Ulrich Hartl (born 10 March 1957) is a German
biochemist and the current Executive Director of the
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry . He is known for his pioneering work in
chaperone -mediated
protein folding .
Hartl was born in
Essen ,
West Germany in 1957 to an
electrical engineer father and a
home economics
teacher mother. His family moved to a village in northern part of the
Black Forest when he was four. He was intrigued with
biology since a young age, thanks to his hobby
microscopist grandfather and a family friend who was a biology teacher.
[2] Hartl specifically became interested in
biochemistry in high school after reading
James Watson 's
account of the
discovery of the helical structure of
DNA , prompting him to study
medicine and specialise in biochemistry at
Heidelberg University .
[2]
[3] It was during this period when he had his first research experience, studying
peroxisomes in
rat
liver . Hartl completed his
MD degree in 1985.
[1]
After receiving his
MD degree, one of the external examiners of Hartl's thesis, Walter Neupert, invited him to join his group at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry of the
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich as a
postdoctoral researcher .
[2] Hartl then achieved
habilitation in 1990,
[1] which is one of the requirements for
professorship in Germany.
[4]
[5]
In 1989, Hartl spent a year as a
postdoctoral fellow at
William T. Wickner 's group at the
University of California, Los Angeles . In 1991, after obtaining habilitation, he moved to the Cellular
Biochemistry and
Biophysics Program of the
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center , also becoming an
associate professor at the
Cornell University Medical College (now
Weill Cornell Medicine ). He was promoted to
full professor 3 years later.
[1]
Hartl returned to
Germany in 1997 to become one of the Directors of the
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB).
[1] The Executive Director of MPIB rotates among the Directors every year, and Hartl is the current Executive Director for the year 2023.
[6]
[7]
During his time at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Hartl was a William E. Snee Chair and a
Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator (1994-1997).
[8]
Hartl was known for his discovery of
chaperone -mediated
protein folding , made together with
Arthur L. Horwich . Protein folding is the process where proteins attain their three-dimensional shapes required to be functional.
[9] His research on chaperones began during his time at the
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich . Soon after he arrived at
Munich in 1985, the scientific field confirmed that proteins inside
cells had to unfold before and crossing the
mitochondrial membrane to enter
mitochondria and then refold afterwards, and that
heat shock proteins interacted with proteins before they crossed the mitochondrial or the
cell membrane .
[10] This made the mitochondria a nice model to study protein folding. However, the long-held belief was that proteins fold spontaneously.
[11]
Walter Neupert, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
professor under Hartl was working, introduced Hartl to Arthur L. Horwich. Using a mutant strain of
yeast that could import a certain protein (
ornithine transcarbamylase ) into the mitochondria but the protein could not fold or become functional once inside the mitochondria. They found the
gene mutated in this mutant strain was identical to a previously discovered gene,
HSP60 .
[12] The HSP60 protein, encoded by the HSP60 gene, belongs to a family of chaperones called
chaperonin .
Next, Hartl and Horwich investigated how the HSP60 protein helped proteins fold. They looked at another protein,
dihydrofolate reductase , in
Neurospora crassa , a
fungus species, and found
ATP , the energy currency in cells, is required for the HSP60 protein helping other proteins fold. Their finding showed HSP60-mediated protein folding is dependent on energy.
[13]
Hartl continued studying chaperones and protein folding after moving to the
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center , focusing on the mechanism by which chaperones helping other proteins fold. He turned to the
E. coli counterpart of the
eukaryotic HSP60 protein, known as
GroEL , and its helper protein
GroES . His group showed chaperone-mediated folding actually consisted of a series of steps, and that multiple chaperones passed off partially folded proteins from one to the next.
[14] His group also found GroEL and GroES together formed a cage inside which the target protein was trapped and folded.
[15]
[16]
More recently, Hartl's work expanded to
proteostasis , which a
cell 's regulation of
protein biosynthesis ,
protein folding ,
protein trafficking , and
protein degradation , and how abnormalities in proteostasis can cause
protein aggregation and diseases.
[17]
[18]
Hartl is married to Manajit Hayer-Hartl, whom he met in 1986 at a
molecular biology summer school on a
Greek island. Hayer-Hartl is currently a research group leader at the
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
[19] and a close collaborator of Hartl since 1991.
[10] She was awarded the
ASBMB -
Merck Award in 2021.
[20]
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Curriculum Vitae" .
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry . Archived from
the original on 11 September 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2023 .
^
a
b
c
d
e
"Autobiography of Franz-Ulrich Hartl" .
Shaw Prize . Archived from
the original on 22 July 2023. Retrieved 22 July 2023 .
^
"Eiwitklonten en spaghettislierten" (PDF) (in German).
Heineken Prizes . Archived from
the original (PDF) on 11 September 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2023 .
^
"FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: HABILITATION" (PDF) .
Zeppelin University . Archived from
the original (PDF) on 11 September 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2023 .
^
"Habilitation" .
Leipzig University . Archived from
the original on 11 September 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2023 .
^
"Organization of the Institute" . Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. Archived from
the original on 12 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023 .
^
"Organization of the Institute" . Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. Archived from
the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022 .
^
"Franz-Ulrich Hartl, MD" .
Howard Hughes Medical Institute . Archived from
the original on 12 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023 .
^ Kim, Yujin E.; Hipp, Mark S.; Bracher, Andreas; Hayer-Hartl, Manajit; Hartl, F. Ulrich (2013).
"Molecular Chaperone Functions in Protein Folding and Proteostasis" .
Annual Review of Biochemistry . 82 : 323–355.
doi :
10.1146/annurev-biochem-060208-092442 .
PMID
23746257 . Retrieved 18 September 2023 .
^
a
b Hartl, F. Ulrich (2011).
"Chaperone-assisted protein folding: the path to discovery from a personal perspective" (PDF) .
Nature Medicine . 17 (10): 1206–1210.
doi :
10.1038/nm.2467 .
PMID
21989011 .
S2CID
4827124 . Archived from
the original (PDF) on 19 September 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2023 .
^ Claiborn, Kathryn (2011).
"A mystery unfolds: Franz-Ulrich Hartl and Arthur L. Horwich win the 2011 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award" .
Journal of Clinical Investigation . 121 (10): 3774–3777.
doi :
10.1172/JCI60889 .
PMC
3195494 .
PMID
22059237 . Archived from
the original on 18 September 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2023 .
^ Cheng, Ming Y.; Hartl, F.-Ulrich; Martin, Jörg; Pollock, Robert A.; Kalousek, Frantisek; Neupert, Walter; Hallberg, Elizabeth M.; Hallberg, Richard L.;
Horwich, Arthur L. (1989).
"Mitochondrial heat-shock protein hsp60 is essential for assembly of proteins imported into yeast mitochondria" .
Nature . 337 (6208): 620–625.
Bibcode :
1989Natur.337..620C .
doi :
10.1038/337620a0 .
PMID
2645524 .
S2CID
4333381 . Retrieved 18 September 2023 .
^ Ostermann, Joachim;
Horwich, Arthur L. ; Neupert, Walter; Hartl, F.-Ulrich (1989).
"Protein folding in mitochondria requires complex formation with hsp60 and ATP hydrolysis" . Nature . 341 (6238): 125–130.
Bibcode :
1989Natur.341..125O .
doi :
10.1038/341125a0 .
PMID
2528694 .
S2CID
1552845 . Retrieved 18 September 2023 .
^ Langer, Thomas; Lu, Chi; Echols, Harrison; Flanagan, John; Hayer, Manajit K.; Hartl, F. Ulrich (1992).
"Successive action of DnaK, DnaJ and GroEL along the pathway of chaperone-mediated protein folding" . Nature . 356 (6371): 683–689.
Bibcode :
1992Natur.356..683L .
doi :
10.1038/356683a0 .
PMID
1349157 .
S2CID
4324738 . Retrieved 20 September 2023 .
^ Langer, Thomas; Pfeifer, Gunter; Martin, Jörg;
Baumeister, Wolfgang ; Hartl, Franz-Ulrich (1992).
"Chaperonin-mediated protein folding: GroES binds to one end of the GroEL cylinder, which accommodates the protein substrate within its central cavity" .
The EMBO Journal . 11 (13): 4757–4765.
doi :
10.1002/j.1460-2075.1992.tb05581.x .
PMC
556951 .
PMID
1361169 .
^ Martin, Jörg; Mayhew, Mark; Langer, Thomas; Hartl, Ulrich (1993).
"The reaction cycle of GroEL and GroES in chaperonin-assisted protein folding" . Nature . 366 (6452): 228–233.
Bibcode :
1993Natur.366..228M .
doi :
10.1038/366228a0 .
PMID
7901770 .
S2CID
4361040 . Retrieved 20 September 2023 .
^ Woerner, Andreas C.; Frottin, Frédéric; Hornburg, Daniel; Feng, Li R.; Meissner, Felix; Patra, Maria; Tatzelt, Jörg;
Mann, Matthias ; Winklhofer, Konstanze F.; Hartl, F. Ulrich; Hipp, Mark S. (2016).
"Cytoplasmic protein aggregates interfere with nucleocytoplasmic transport of protein and RNA" .
Science . 351 (6269): 173–176.
Bibcode :
2016Sci...351..173W .
doi :
10.1126/science.aad2033 .
hdl :
11858/00-001M-0000-002B-0491-8 .
PMID
26634439 .
S2CID
206642264 . Retrieved 21 September 2023 .
^ Kim, Yujin E.; Hosp, Fabian; Frottin, Frédéric; Ge, Hui;
Mann, Matthias ; Hayer-Hartl, Manajit; Hartl, F. Ulrich (2016).
"Soluble Oligomers of PolyQ-Expanded Huntingtin Target a Multiplicity of Key Cellular Factors" .
Molecular Cell . 63 (6): 951–964.
doi :
10.1016/j.molcel.2016.07.022 .
PMID
27570076 .
^
"Manajit Hayer-Hartl" . Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. Archived from
the original on 19 September 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023 .
^ Stivison, Elizabeth (1 November 2019).
"Winding path leads to plant enzyme breakthrough" . ASBMB Today .
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology . Archived from
the original on 19 September 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023 .
^
"F. Ulrich Hartl" .
European Molecular Biology Organization . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"Academy Prize" .
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"Franz-Ulrich Hartl" .
American Academy of Arts and Sciences . 7 August 2023. Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"Overview of all Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizewinners" .
German Research Foundation . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"F. Ulrich Hartl" .
German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"Prof. Dr. F. Ulrich Hartl" .
Bavarian Academy of Sciences . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"F. Ulrich Hartl" .
Gairdner Foundation . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"Laureates 1976 to 2022" . Ernst Jung Foundation. Archived from
the original on 14 August 2023. Retrieved 14 August 2023 .
^
"Protein Society Awards" .
Protein Society . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"Previous prizewinners" .
Körber Foundation . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"The Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences" . Wiley Foundation. Retrieved 29 August 2023 .
^
"Past Winners" .
Brandeis University . Archived from
the original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023 .
^
"2010 - 2001 Awardees" .
Columbia University . 11 November 2022. Archived from
the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023 .
^
"Prize Winners of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2019" .
Goethe University Frankfurt . Archived from
the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023 .
^
"Historic Fellows" .
American Association for the Advancement of Science . Archived from
the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023 .
^
"Franz-Ulrich Hartl" .
Heineken Prizes . Archived from
the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023 .
^
"Ministerpräsident Seehofer händigt Bayerischen Verdienstorden und Bundesverdienstkreuz an verdiente Persönlichkeiten aus" (Press release) (in German).
Government of Bavaria . 22 March 2011. Archived from
the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017 .
^
a
b
"Curriculum Vitae Professor Dr Franz-Ulrich Hartl" (PDF) . German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Archived from
the original (PDF) on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^
"F. Ulrich Hartl" .
National Academy of Sciences . Archived from
the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 14 September 2023 .
^
"2011 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award" .
Lasker Award . Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^
"Past Laureates" .
Keck School of Medicine ,
University of Southern California . Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^
"2011: Prof. Franz-Ulrich Hartl" .
Heinrich Wieland Prize . Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^
"The 2012 Prize in Life Science & Medicine" .
Shaw Prize . Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^ Eisen, Jonathan A. (1 March 2012).
"Full list of 2012 American Academy of Microbiology Fellows Announced" .
University of California, Davis . Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^
"F.-Ulrich Hartl receives Herbert Tabor Research Award" (Press release). Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry. 19 April 2013. Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^
"Previous Recipients" .
Albany Medical Center . Archived from
the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021 .
^
"Franz-Ulrich Hartl Ernst: Schering Prize 2016" .
Ernst Schering Foundation . Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^
"Franz Hartl" .
American Society for Cell Biology . Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^ Spiro, Mary (22 September 2017).
"Hartl and Horwich named 2017 E.B. Wilson Medalists" . American Society for Cell Biology. Archived from
the original on 15 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023 .
^
"A German biochemist wins this year's Debrecen Award" .
University of Debrecen . 13 December 2017. Archived from
the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023 .
^
"Prize Winners of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2019" .
Goethe University Frankfurt . Archived from
the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023 .
^
"Franz-Ulrich Hartl, M.D."
Johnson & Johnson . Archived from
the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023 .
^
"F. Ulrich Hartl" .
Breakthrough Prize . Archived from
the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023 .
^
"Ministerpräsident Dr. Markus Söder zeichnet verdiente Persönlichkeiten mit dem Maximiliansorden für Wissenschaft und Kunst aus" (in German). Government of Bavaria. 10 November 2021. Archived from
the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023 .
^
"2022 - Franz-Ulrich Hartl and Arthur L. Horwich" .
Human Frontier Science Program . Archived from
the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023 .
^
"Schleiden Medal" . German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Archived from
the original on 16 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023 .
^
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2023
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