Mohamed Marahiel

Mohamed Marahiel studied chemistry at the Universities of Cairo (Egypt) and G�ttingen (Germany). In 1977, he obtained a PhD in biochemistry and microbiology from the University of G�ttingen. Subsequently, he received an assistant professor's position at the Technical University of Berlin, where in 1987 he obtained his Habilitation in biochemistry. Three years later he moved to the Philipps-Universit�t as a professor of biochemistry in the chemistry department. He was a DFG fellow in 1978 and 1986 at the John Innes Institute in Norwich (UK) and at the Biolabs, Harvard University (USA), respectively. Since 2004 he is a member of the "Leopoldina" - Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher and since 2009 a fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry. His present research focuses on the structure-function relationship and on the elucidation of reaction mechanisms of modular peptide synthetases involved in the nonribosomal synthesis of peptide antibiotics. His group is also interested in studying ribosomally synthesized peptide antibiotics, siderophores and stress-induced proteins in bacteria.