Protein transport into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is just one aspect of the general cell biology topic of intracellular protein sorting. This larger picture also includes protein transport into other organelles of the eukaryotic cell (chloroplasts, mitochondria, nucleus, peroxisomes), protein export from bacteria, vesicular transport that delivers to its final destination most of what has been transported into the ER, and protein export from the ER that is associated with protein degradation (termed ERAD). Over the years, protein transport into the ER also has become part of the quest to understand the various roles of molecular chaperones under non-stress conditions and of the ribosomal tunnel exit as the decisive site for molecular triage of nascent polypeptide chains.
Biography
Richard Zimmermann is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Medical School of Saarland University, Homburg, Germany. His research interests fall within the fields of intracellular protein transport and molecular chaperones, with an emphasis on the role of chaperones and co-chaperones in protein transport into the mammalian endoplasmic reticulum. He received his PhD from the “Georg-August”-University in Gottingen, Germany, and was Postdoc at the Molecular Biology Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles, USA. Before his current appointment he was Assistant Professor at the “Ludwig-Maximilians”-University in Munich and Associate Professor at the “Georg-August”-University o f Gottingen, both Germany. Since 2005 he heads the Competence Center for Molecular Medicine at Saarland University (KoMM).
