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About Edward Lemke
Prof. Dr. Edward A Lemke
EMBO Member
Fellow of the Biophysical Society (USA)
Spokesperson of Collaborative Research Centre 1551 on “Polymer Concepts in Cellular Function” (crc1551.com)
Founding Director of Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung Center for Synthetic Genomics (syn-gen.de)
Adjunct Director IMB
Faculty of Biology, Department of Chemistry
On 1st of January 2018 Edward Lemke started his professorship for synthetic biophysics at the faculty of biology at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and was appointed as adjunct director at the Institute for Molecular Biology (IMB). Lemke is one of the leading experts in the field of intrinsically disordered protein research, as which he also led an Emmy-Noether-group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and won an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2015 as well as an ERC Advanced Grant in 2022. Through innovation in the methodical approach and the combination of chemical, biophysical and cell biological expertise an important contribution to the field was made. Lemke is the spokesperson of the DFG priority program for molecular mechanisms of phase separation (SPP2191) and the DFG collaborative research centre for polymer concepts in cellular function (SFB1551). As a GFK-Fellow he will pave new ways for the interdisciplinary life science research in Mainz with his work on the dark proteome. Lemke has also been named as a 2025 Biophysical Society Fellow for demonstrating excellence in science and contributing to the expansion of the field of biophysics.
| 2019 – | Co-founder and Consultant, Araxa Biosciences, since 2020 Veraxa Biosciences AG |
| 2018 – | Professor JGU Mainz, Faculty of Biology and joint appointed with Department of Chemistry |
| 2018 – | Adjunct Director IMB |
| 2018 – 2020 | Visiting Group Leader EMBL |
| 2009 – 2017 | Independent group leader at the EMBL Heidelberg, Structural and Computational Biology Unit and Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit |
| 2005 – 2008 | Joint research associate (postdoctorate) Department of Chemistry and Department of Molecular Biology at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA |
| 2002 – 2005 | PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (and University of Goettingen), Department Membrane Biophysics (3 month bridging postdoc) |
| 1999 – 2001 | Master of Science, University of Oklahoma |
| 1997 – 2001 | Diploma, Technical University of Berlin |
| 2024 | BPS 2025 Society Fellow |
| 2022 | Elected EMBO member |
| 2019 | ERC Advanced Grant (LS domain) |
| 2018 | Gutenberg Research College Fellow |
| 2017 | FEBS anniversary award |
| 2016 | Chica and Heinz Schaller award for biomedical research |
| 2015 | Young Investigator Award of the International Chemical Biology Society |
| 2015 – 2020 | ERC consolidator grant (PE domain) |
| 2013 | MRN Innovation award (jointly to C. Schultz and E. Lemke) |
| 2010 – 2016 | Emmy Noether Programme of the DFG |
| 2006 – 2008 | Feodor Lynen postdoctoral fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation |
| 2003 – 2005 | PhD fellowship of the Boehringer Ingelheim Fond |
| 2002 | Erwin-Stephan award for excellent and fast studies, Technical University of Berlin |
| 2001 | Scholarship of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes |
| 1999 – 2000 | Oversea-scholarship of the Technical University of Berlin |
| 1998 | Klaus-Koch-scholarship for excellent studies, Technical University of Berlin |
Scientific conference and workshop organization
| 2022 | Co-organizer EMBO Chemical Biology Conference 2022 |
| 2022 | Main organizer EMBO/EMBL-Symposium on Phase Separation |
| 2018 | Co-organizer EMBO Chemical Biology Conference 2018 |
| 2018 | Main organizer EMBO/EMBL-Symposium on Phase Separation |
| 2015 | Main organizer EMBO Advanced Fluorescence Spec/Microscopy Practical Course |
| 2015 | Elected Co-chair, IDP Subgroup of the Biophysical Society, annual meeting |
| 2014 | Main organizer EMBO Chemical Biology conference 2014 |
| 2011 | Co-organizer and teacher 1st EMBO Chemical Biology Practical Course |
| 2009 | Co-organizer Symposium on “Light Microscopy meets Structural Biology” |
Editorial activities/review panel member
| 2017 – | Editorial Board member, Journal of Molecular Biology |
| 2017 | Editor Methods in Molecular Biology, Noncanonical amino acids |
| 2016 – | Editorial Advisory Board, Cell Chemical Biology |
| 2016 | Editor Methods in Molecular Biology Book on Genetic Code Expansion |
| 2015 – | Editorial Advisory Board, ChemBiochem (Wiley) |
| 2015 – 2017 | Editorial Advisory Board, RSC Molecular Biosystems |
| 2014 | Guest-Editor, special issue on Genetic code expansion (ChemBioChem, Wiley) |
Coordinating Functions
| 2020 – 2022 | Elected Co-Chair and subsequent Chair, IDP sunbgroupof the Biophysical Society |
| 2021 – | Study Representative (Studienbeauftragter) Msc Biology |
| 2018 – | Speaker DFG Priority Program 2191 |
| 2011 – 2016 | Module Coordinator EMBL Predoc Course |
| 2010 – 2019 | EMBL Advanced Light Microscopy Facility Steering Committee |