Draft:Utz Fischer



Utz Fischer (born 12 October 1964 in Berlin) is a German scientist in the field of RNA biology. He holds the position of Professor of Biochemistry within the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the Biocenter of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and serves as an associate member at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI).

Academic Career
Fischer pursued his biochemistry studies at the Free University of Berlin and the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Germany. He earned his doctorate in 1992 and conducted his initial postdoctoral research from 1992 to 1995 at the Institute of Molecular Tumorbiology (IMT) of Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, under the guidance of Prof. Reinhard Lührmann. From 1995 to 1997, Fischer held a position as a DKFZ Fellow (AIDS Scholar) at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA), working in Prof. Gideon Dreyfuss's group.

From 1997 to 2003 he headed an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried. Since 2003 he has held the Chair (W3) of Biochemistry I at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany, and since 2019 he has been affiliated member of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI/HIRI), Germany. From 2018 to 2021, Fischer was Associate Director at the Cancer Therapy Research Center (CTRC) of Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg.

From 2014 to 2018, Fischer was Head of the Department of RNA-based disease therapy at Genelux, San Diego, USA and Research Scientist at the Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences, University of California, San Diego, USA.

Academic Distinctions

 * 1999 Gerhard Hess Award of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
 * 1998 Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer Research Award
 * 1993 Falcon Research Award of the German Society of Cell Biology
 * 1989 Dissertation award of Hoechst Industries

Activities in the Research System

 * 2022 Organizer, International Meeting (Online) of the SPP1935
 * Since 2021 Member of the ‘DFG Senate Committee’ for CRGs
 * 2019-2021 Spokesperson of the Biocenter, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany
 * 2018 Organizer, International Meeting ‘RNA: Beyond its Genetic code’
 * Since 2017 Advisor Behring-Röntgen-Foundation, Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany
 * Since 2017 Advisor Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit, EMBL/ Universität Heidelberg, Germany
 * 2016-2023 Organizer, Annual Meeting of the DFG Priority Program SPP1935
 * 2016 Co-organizer of the Annual Meeting of the RNA Society in Kyoto, Japan
 * Since 2015 Spokesperson (together with Prof. Niels Gehring), SPP1935
 * 2011-2013 Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany
 * 2010-2016 Member of DFG study section Biology & Medicine
 * 2010 Organizer, EMBO|EMBL Symposium ‘The complex Life of mRNA: From Synthesis to Decay’
 * 2007-2013 Spokesperson (together with Prof. Elmar Wahle), FOR-855