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"ERC Starting Grant" for the Biozentrum and Sebastian Hiller

The structural biologist Prof. Sebastian Hiller from the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has been awarded a highly coveted «Starting Independent Researcher Grant» by the European Research Council. Hiller has earned this funding, amounting to almost 2 million Euros, for his research on membrane protein structures and functions. The ERC Starting Grant is one of the most prestigious grants for young scientists throughout Europe and it has been awarded for the first time to the Biozentrum at the University of Basel.

Within the framework of his European Research Council (ERC) research project, Sebastian Hiller and his research group will investigate structures and functions of mitochondrial membrane proteins using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Membrane proteins play a central role in the regulation processes within the cells of all living organisms. They are responsible for important functions such as signal transmission or the transport of biomolecules and are therefore also of high medical relevance. In the ERC project, Hiller will apply NMR methods to characterize the structures, functions and folding processes of membrane proteins and their complexes at atomic resolution.

Sebastian Hiller - A Profile

Sebastian Hiller studied membrane proteins by NMR already during his doctoral work in the laboratory of Professor Kurt Wüthrich at ETH Zurich. Kurt Wüthrich received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work on determining protein structures using NMR spectroscopy. Following his research work at the ETH Zurich, Hiller took on a postdoctoral position at Harvard Medical School in Boston, where he continued his investigations in the field of structural analysis of membrane proteins. In 2010, Hiller received an SNSF Professorship from the Swiss National Science Foundation, which brought him to the Biozentrum at the University of Basel, where he researches and teaches today. With the «Starting Independent Researcher Grant», the ERC is now giving recognition to Hiller’s scientific research work in the field of structural and functional analysis of membrane proteins using NMR. At the same time, the grant also makes it possible for Hiller to continue to push ahead with his investigations in the future.

First «ERC Starting Grant» for the Biozentrum at the University of Basel

With the «ERC Starting Grant», the European Research Council gives recognition to innovative fundamental research and pioneering projects. The sole selection criterion is scientific excellence evident in both the project and the investigator. This funding instrument aims to support promising research leaders on their road to scientific independence, allowing them to establish or consolidate a research team for a period of up to five years. The EU-Grant awarded to Sebastian Hiller is the first «Starting Independent Researcher Grant» for the Biozentrum and the third for the University of Basel. In 2008, Prof. Dominik Zumbühl at the Department of Physics and Prof. Walter Salzburger from the Zoological Institute received the renowned ERC-Starting Grants.

Contact: Communications