Appointment of Knut Drescher to Professor of Biophysics
Knut Drescher, Max Planck Research Group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, has been appointed by the president of the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Prof. Dr. Katharina Krause, as professor of biophysics.
The newly established professorship for biophysics is associated with research cluster on complex systems and biophysics in the department of physics, with the aim of further expanding the ongoing excellent collaboration between the Philipps-Universität Marburg and the Max Planck Institute to the area of biophysics.
Since November 2014 Knut Drescher has been leading one of the highly prestigious Max Planck Research Groups and will continue his research on bacterial biofilms with his research group at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, in addition to his new responsibilities within the university.
Dr. Drescher is trained in applied mathematics and obtained his PhD at Cambridge University in United Kingdom. For his post-doctoral work, he went to Princeton University to join the groups of the biophysicists Howard Stone and Ned Wingreen, and the microbiologist Bonnie Bassler to study physical and mechanical aspects of biofilm formation. The Max Planck Research group of Dr. Drescher is highly interdisciplinary and combines biophysics with molecular and cellular microbiology to understand the formation of bacterial biofilm communities. Bacterial biofilm communities are intrinsically resistant to antibiotics and are the cause of numerous chronic and hospital-acquired infections. The long-term goal of Dr. Drescher and his co-workers is to develop new ways to control and interfere with biofilm development by gaining a fundamental understanding of the basic processes involved in the formation of these bacterial communities.
In his teaching at the department of physics of the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Dr. Drescher will introduce a new biophysics curriculum via courses, exercises, and hands-on practicals, together with Prof. Dr. Sourjik and Dr. Endesfelder from the Max Planck Institute.
