Designing active substances such as therapeutic antibodies or messenger substances and producing them exactly where they are needed in the body is one of Andreas Plückthun’s research findings. The genes introduced into tumor cells, for example, form the template for therapeutic antibodies, cytokines, synthetic binding proteins and other messenger substances on site. They are produced by the cancer cells themselves and eliminate the tumor from within.
After training in Heidelberg, at the University of California in San Diego and at Harvard University, Andreas Plückthun was a group leader at the Gene Center of the University of Munich and at the MPI for Biochemistry. Since 1993, he has been a professor at the Biochemical Institute of the University of Zurich. He is co-founder of the biopharmaceutical companies Morphosys, Molecular Partners, G7/Heptares, and Vector BioPharma.
Plückthun has received many awards, including the Protein Society’s Anfinsen Award and the European Research Council’s Advanced Grant. He has published more than 450 papers.