Biography

Andreas C. Joerger obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Freiburg, Germany in 2000 for elucidating the reaction mechanism and structural basis of substrate specificity of a zinc-dependent aldolase. He then assumed a postdoc position in the group of Prof. Sir Alan Fersht at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Protein Engineering in Cambridge, United Kingdom, initially working on protein design. He stayed on as a senior scientist in structural biology until 2010, before moving to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (2010-2015). During his long spell at the MRC, he made key contributions towards unraveling the complex structural biology of the tumor suppressor p53 and related proteins. He determined the first crystal structures of p53 cancer mutants, which led to the Y220C mutant being used as a paradigm for the development of mutant p53 rescue drugs based on protein stabilization. In 2016, Dr. Joerger joined the group of Prof. Stefan Knapp at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. He is currently a German Research Foundation (DFG)-funded project leader on targeting the p53 mutome for cancer therapy; and co-investigator on a grant from Worldwide Cancer Research for the development of Y220C mutant stabilizers. His other research interests include the evolutionary history of the p53 pathway, epigenetic targets and general principles of molecular interactions.