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Spokesman

Prof. Dr. Boris Fehse – Gene therapy and stem cell research

e-Mail, Clinic for Stem Cell Transplantation, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

Studied biomedicine in Moscow, graduated in medicine. 1996 PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Biology at the University of Hamburg. Habilitation in 2002 in Hamburg in the field of Molecular Medicine. 2007-2008 Professor of Experimental Pediatric Oncology and Hematology at the Goethe University Hospital, Frankfurt/M. Since 2009 Head of the Cell and Gene Therapy Research Department at the Clinic for Stem Cell Transplantation, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Main research interests: Cell and gene therapy, immunotherapy. President e.o. of the German Society for Gene Therapy, member of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

Deputy Spokesman

Prof. Dr. Jörn Walter – Epigenetics

e-Mail, Department of Bioscience, Epigenetics, Saarland University

Studied biology, Darmstadt and Berlin. 1990 PhD in biology, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics. 1999/2000 habilitation in genetics, Humboldt University Berlin. Since 2000 Professor of genetics and epigenetics, Saarland University. Main research areas: characterisation and functional analysis of imprinted genes, epigenetic mapping of genomes (epigenomics), research on epigenetic programmes in stem cells. Member of the Society of Molecular Biology, the Society of Genetics and the Society of Human Genetics. Deputy Spokesman of the Steering Group of the International Human Epigenome Consortium IHEC and (elected) member of Academia Europaea and member of the German Society for Immunology.

Members

Prof. Dr. Sina Bartfeld – Biology

e-Mail, Institute of Biotechnology, Technical University of Berlin

Studied biology, Hamburg, Melbourne and Berlin. 2009 PhD in infection biology in Berlin. Since 2021 Professor and Head of the Department of Medical Biotechnology at the Technical University of Berlin. Principal Investigator of the Bartfeld Lab as part of „The Simulated Human“, a joint research space of TU Berlin and Charité. Main research areas: Organoids as models, host-pathogen interaction and carcinogenesis.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Clemens – Plant Physiology

e-Mail, Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, Department of Plant Physiology, University of Bayreuth

Studied biology in Brighton and Münster. PhD in Münster followed by a postdoc at the University of California, San Diego. Habilitation at the University of Halle-Wittenberg in 2003. Since 2006 chair of Plant Physiology at the University of Bayreuth, from 2012 to 2016 director of the Research unit for Food Quality in Kulmbach, since 2018 founding dean of the new „Faculty of Life Sciences: Food, Nutrition and Health“. Spokesman of „Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants“ in the GBM. Main research areas: metal homeostasis, metal hyperaccumulation and biofortification.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Erb – Biochemistry and Synthetic Biology

e-Mail, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology

Studied biology and chemistry in Freiburg. 2009 PhD in biochemistry. Research stays at the Ohio State University (US) and the University of Illinois (US). Junior group leader and SNF-Ambizione fellow at the ETH Zürich. Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg. From 2017 Director of the Department of Biochemistry at the MPI. Research interests: biochemistry and synthetic biology of carbon dioxide conversion. Member of the Junge Akademie at the BBAW and Leopoldina (until 2018). Member of the scientific advisory board of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM), as well as the German Association for Synthetic Biology.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Heiner Fangerau – History, theory and ethics of biomedicine

e-Mail, Department of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, University of Duesseldorf

Studied at Ruhr University, Bochum. 1999 state examination in human medicine. 2000 PhD in the history of race hygiene/eugenics, Ruhr University Bochum. Assistant doctor in the disciplines neurology and psychiatry, Bremen/Bonn. 2007 habilitation in the discipline history, theory and ethics of medicine. 2008–2014 Director of the Institute for History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, University of Ulm. 2014/2015 Director of the Institute for History and Ethics of Medicine, University Clinic Cologne. Since 2016 Director and holder of the Chair of the Institute for History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf. Main research areas: History and ethics of medicine in the 19st and 20st centuries, in particular the history of medical diagnostics, medico-historical network analysis and medical-ethical issues of the 21st century. Member of the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Jürgen Hampel – Technological and environmental sociology

e-Mail, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Stuttgart.

Studied sociology and psychology, Mannheim. 1995 PhD in sociology, Free University Berlin. 1994–2003 project coordinator in the Academy for Technology Impact Assessment (TA-Akademie), Baden-Württemberg. Since 2004 assistant with the Chair for Technological and Environmental Sociology, University of Stuttgart. Main research areas: international comparative study of social reactions to new technologies, in particular modern biotechnologies and societal dimensions of sustainability. Member of the Society for Risk Analysis of the European Federation of Biotechnology and staff member of TechnikRadar, a project of the Körber Foundation and acatech.

Prof. Dr. Martin Korte – Cellular neurobiology

e-Mail, Molecular Cell Biology, Zoological Institute, Technical University Braunschweig

Studied biology, Münster and Tübingen. 1991 diploma thesis, National Institutes of Health, USA. 1995 dissertation. 2001 habilitation, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. 2004–2007 Professor of animal physiology, Technical University Braunschweig. From 2007 Professor of cellular neurobiology and Director of the Zoological Institute. Main research areas: cellular basics of learning and remembering, and disremembering processes. Founding member of the Junge Akademie. Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Müller-Terpitz – Law

e-Mail, Institute for German, European and International Medical Law, Health Law and Bioethics, Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim

Studied law at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn and at the Université de Genève. Habilitation 2005 at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn. Holder of the Chair of Public Law, Law of Economic Regulation and Media. Director of the Institute for German, European and International Medical Law, Health Law and Bioethics at the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim (IMGB). Main research areas: Issues of network regulation including the Internet and the media, law of biomedicine. Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the University of Mannheim.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Mundlos – Molecular human genetics

e-Mail, Institute for Medical and Human Genetics at the Charité Berlin, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics

Studies of medicine in Marburg, Göttingen and Heidelberg. 1985 licence to practice medicine (approbation), followed by a PhD. 1997 habilitation and 1998 specialist qualification in human genetics. Since 2000 director at the Institute for Medical and Human Genetics at the Charité Berlin. Main research areas: genetics and developmental biology of the musculoskeletal system, mechanisms of gene regulation, 3D chromatin folding. 2017 appointed as external scientific member of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin.

Prof. em. Dr. Jens Reich – Bioinformatics, molecular biology

e-Mail, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin-Buch.

Studied medicine, Berlin. 1964 PhD in medicine, Berlin. 1964 „PhD B“, Berlin. Up to 2005 research group coordinator „Bioinformatics“, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine. Up to 2004 university professor, Humboldt University Berlin. Main research areas: bioinformatics, molecular biology. From 2008 to 2012 member of the German Ethics Committee. Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Prof. Dr. Silke Schicktanz – Ethics of biomedicine

e-Mail, Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Center Göttingen

Studied biology and philosophy at University of Tübingen. 2002 PhD in the field of ethics in the life sciences. Since 2010 full-professor at the Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine in Göttingen. Since 2011 deputy director at the Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine. Main research areas: Ethics of biomedicine, cultural differences in bioethics, role of body and identity in bioethics, normative and lay concepts of autonomy, trust, and responsibility, lay people and patients' perspective in bioethics and health politics, relationship between ethics and empirical studies. President of the Academy of Ethics in Medicine since 2022, Member of the Central Ethics Committee on Stem Cell Research, Member of the Committee on Freedom and Research in Science (International Council of Science; 2010–2018).

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. phil. Eva Winkler – Medical ethics

e-Mail, National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), University Hospital Heidelberg

is an physician ethicist, studied medicine in Munich & Heidelberg. 1999 MD in Cancer research in Heidelberg. 2010 PhD in Medical and Healthcare Ethics in Basel. Since 2012 attending physician in Medical Oncology, National Center for Tumor Diseases Heidelberg. 2011 habilitation in Munich and Heidelberg. 2019 Heisenberg Professor for Translational Medicine in Heidelberg.Main research areas: clinical ethics, patient-oriented care, research ethics and ethics of genomics. Since 2023 Chairwoman of the Central Ethics Committee at the German Medical Association, Member in the German Medical Society in Hematology and Oncology, Member of the board of the German Academy of Ethics in Medicine.

Senior-Prof. Dr. Martin Zenke – Stem cell research

e-Mail, Department of Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University

Studied chemistry, biochemistry and medicine, Marburg. 1982 PhD, German Cancer Research Center and the University of Heidelberg. 1992 habilitation in molecular genetics, University of Vienna. Since 2022 Senior Professor of Cell Biology, Department of Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Medical Faculty of RWTH Aachen University. Main research areas: research on blood-forming stem cells and embryonic stem cells, reprogramming of somatic cells in pluripotent cells (cellular engineering) and tissue engineering. Member of the Central Ethics Committee for Stem Cell Research.