Klaus Mosbach

Visiting professor at
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, biotechnology
ETH Honggerberg HPT E 77
CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland

and

Founder of Center for Molecular Imprinting at
the Dept. for Pure and Applied Biochemistry
Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
P.O. Box 124, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden

For fast and safe response, preferentially use e-mail or home address:

Present home address: Gablerstrasse 6,
CH-8002 Zürich, Switzerland
Mobile phone: +41 79 786 65 70

klausmosbach@gmail.com

Welcome to our group!!!
(The eagle is alive but tamed. Picture taken Spring 2004.)

Klaus Mosbach was born in Leipzig/Germany.

Family status: Married to May E., three daughters (Petra, Katja, Vanja)

Klaus Mosbach went to school in Lund, Sweden, and 1952 moved to London, where he took Cambridge and interpreter exams. After working in a pharmaceutical company, Ferrosan in Malmö, Sweden, he began his university studies at Lund University 1953. In 1956 he took his Masters degree in chemistry and biology and subsequently in 1960 his Ph.D. in biochemistry with a thesis on "the biosynthesis of aromatic compounds in fungi and lichens". He was then awarded the Waksman-Merck post-doctoral fellowship and stayed for 1.5 years at the Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers University, N.J., USA.

In 1962 he developed, jointly with Dr. Schaffner in the Philippines, a pasteurization process against Salmonella infections in coconuts, which subsequently was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is presently widely used. After returning to Sweden, he continued his studies on secondary metabolism.

He received his second Ph.D. (corresponding to associate professorship or "Habilitation") from the University of Lund in 1964. Until 1970 he was associate professor there, and from 1970 onwards he has been full professor and head of the Department of Pure and Applied Biochemistry, which he founded, at the University of Lund (LTH). He also co-founded the Department of biotechnology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland, in 1982.

He is now visiting professor in biotechnology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and at the Center of Molecular Imprinting at the University of Lund.

A presentation of the research group and activities with various collaborators is under construction.

Co-workers

Klaus Mosbach had the pleasure of essentially wholly supervising the theses of more than sixty Ph.D.s over the years. A number of highly recognized scientists emerged from this pool, including professors C. Borrebaeck (in part), P. Brodelius, B. Danielsson, B. Hahn-Hägerdahl (in part), A.-C. Koch-Schmidt, P.O. Larsson, C. F. Mandenius, B. Mattiasson, M.O. Månsson, I. Nicholls (starting as post doc), R. Ohlsson (in part) and S. Olsson in Sweden alone.

Klaus Mosbach has been collaborating with several companies over the years, including Biogen and then Hybritech, and has been involved in the formation of start-up companies. He is on the board of several journals and has been cited several times, such as in the international "Who is Who" and "Who is Who in science and technology" (list under construction).

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Positions held

Professor Mosbach had leaves to take advantage of the following positions:

1967 Humboldt assistant professorship stipend at the Max-Planck Institute, Munich, Germany

1970 visiting professorship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

1973 guest professorship in Dallas, Texas, USA

1978 guest professorship (Japanese Society for the promotion of Science) in Japan

1993 honorary visiting professorship in biochemistry at the University of Bath, UK

1995 honorary visiting professorship in biochemistry at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

During these stays he collaborated with Nobel Prize winners Lynen, Waksman as well as with Professors Estabrook and Srere, Katchalski-Katzir and Wilchek, Fukui, Chibata, Suzuki, Rees and Creighton respectively.

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Selected awards

Since 1981 member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Since 1982 honorary member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Received the Arrhenius Medal in 1983.

Since 1985 member of the Protein Society, USA.

1985 he was awarded two highly esteemed international scientific prizes given every second year, covering different major areas in biotechnology/biochemistry) as listed below:

I. In Enzyme Engineering by the Engineering Foundation, New York, USA, "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of enzyme engineering" (previous winners: Dr. Chibata, subsequent to him Professors Katchalski-Katzir, Fukui, Klibanov, Lilly, Kula/Wandrey (jointly)).

II. For "important contributions in the field of affinity chromatography" by the International Organization on Affinity Chromatography and Biorecognition (first winner K. Mosbach followed by M. Wilchek (1989), C.R. Lowe (1991), I.M. Chaiken (1993), J. Porath (1995), Regnier/Uhlén (1997) (jointly), Kasai (1999) and Vijayalaksmi (2001).

In 1990 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences for his contribution to biotechnology, especially on the immobilization of bioactive substances.

In 1993 he was awarded the research prize by the Swedish Fund for "Research without Animal Experiments".

In April 1999, Biogen Inc., together with its early members including Klaus Mosbach, received the US National Gold Medal of Technology. The recipient of this award was selected by the Department of Commerce and presented by the president William J. Clinton.

In October 2002 at the International Symposium on Chromatography in London, Klaus Mosbach was presented the Martin Gold Medal, at the Royal Society, for the year 2000, by the Executive Committee of the Chromatographic Society. It was awarded him "in recognition of his major contributions to the field of separation science over many years". Previous recipients of this award are inter alia F. Regnier (1993), C. Horvath (1994) and W.H. Pirkle (1990).

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August 27, 2004