Uwe Sleytr is considered a top representative of nanobiotechnology. The discovery of crystalline bacterial cell wall layers, S-layers, can be traced back to him. Sleytr completed his studies in food and biotechnology at BOKU Vienna, where he became full professor of microbiology in 1982 and created the Center for Nanobiotechnology. In 2003, he founded Nano-S to exploit S-layer nanotechnologies.
Sleytr taught at universities in Cambridge and Philadelphia, among others. Since October 2010, he has been professor emeritus at the Department of NanoBiotechnology at BOKU. He has published about 400 papers, holds numerous patents in the fields of membrane technology, biotechnology, vaccine development, and molecular nanotechnology, and has been honored many times, for example with the Philip Morris Research Prize, the Sandoz Prize, and the Eureka Inventors’ Medal. He is a Life Member of Clare Hall College, Cambridge, and an Honorary Professor of China University of Petroleum and Jiaotong University, Shanghai.