Profiles of Leading Women Scientists on AcademiaNet.
Search among the members of the Leopoldina for experts in specific fields or research topics.
Year of election: | 2007 |
Section: | Genetics/Molecular Biology and Cell Biology |
City: | Munich |
Country: | Germany |
The research interest of Peter Becker focuses on the mechanism that governs the activity of genes in cell nuclei of higher organisms. As a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and, since 1999, as Chairman of the Molecular Biology Department of the University of Munich he studies the role of the packaging of the genetic information in the form of ‘chromatin’ on the activity of the genes. The identification and characterisation in his laboratory of so-called ‘Nucleosome Remodelling’ machines, enzymes that endow chromatin with plasticity, has had a major impact on his field of research.