Two new Professors appointed at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel

Drescher, currently a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and a Professor of Biophysics at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, will become Associate Professor of Microbiology and Biophysics at the Biozentrum. Kempf, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, will join the Biozentrum as Assistant Professor of Neurobiology. Both will take up their new positions mid-2021.

Research into biofilms

Knut Drescher, born 1983, studied physics, majoring in theoretical physics, at the University of Oxford and, in 2011, earned his PhD in experimental biophysics at the University of Cambridge, UK. As a postdoc at Princeton University, USA, he moved into microbiology and began investigating bacterial communities, known as biofilms. His excellent scientific achievements are reflected in numerous awards, including three science prizes last year. He has also received several research fellowships as well as one of the coveted Starting Grants from the European Research Council (ERC).

As a biophysicist working in the field of microbiology, Drescher thinks across scientific disciplines: He combines biological processes with physical principles to understand how bacteria organize themselves, interact with each other and form resistant biofilms. Drescher’s findings may reveal new ways of preventing or dissolving biofilms. Since biofilms also develop on surfaces of medical devices, catheters or implants, they are a major problem in hospitals.

The secret of sleep

Anissa Kempf studied biology at ETH Zurich and was awarded the Willi Studer Prize for the best Master of Science in biology. After completing her PhD under the supervision of Professor Martin Schwab at ETH Zurich, she joined the group of Professor Gero Miesenböck at the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral fellow to study the molecular basis of sleep in fruit flies. Kempf has been awarded numerous research fellowships, including long-term fellowships from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and a Fulford Junior Research Fellowship from Somerville College, University of Oxford.

Each night we disconnect ourselves from the world, yet the biological function of sleep remains unknown. To tackle one of the greatest biological mysteries, Kempf seeks to understand how the brain measures the amount of awake time and how the brain regulates sleep. Recently, she has discovered that the accumulation of free oxygen radicals in the mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell, increases the activity of a specific group of neurons and thus induces sleep. In the future, Kempf wants to investigate how mitochondrial metabolism is used to measure awake time, and ultimately how it controls neuronal activity and sleep-wake cycles.

Five promotions

The University Council also took note of five applications for promotion, each of which will take effect retroactively as of 1 August 2020 for the fall semester 2020:

• Professor Moisés Mayordomo (*1966), Associate Professor for New Testament Studies since August 2014, to full professor at the Faculty of Theology;
• Professor Henner Hanssen (*1972), since August 2015 Tenure Track Assistant Professor for Preventive Sports Medicine at the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, to Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine;
• Professor Tania Rinaldi Barkat (*1977), since February 2015 Tenure Track Assistant Professor for Neurophysiology at the Department of Biomedicine, to Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine;
• Professor Ilaria Zardo (*1981), since September 2015 Tenure Track Assistant Professor for Experimental Material Physics at the Department of Physics, to Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences;
• Professor Florina Ciorba (*1978), since August 2015 Tenure Track Assistant Professor for High Performance Computing at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, to Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science.

Three new adjunct professors

At the request of the Senate, the University Council has also authorized the appointment of three adjunct professors at the Faculty of Medicine:

• Professor Marcel Jakob for orthopedics and traumatology
• Professor Rolf Hügli for radiology
• Professor Christian Kurzeder for gynecology and obstetrics

Further information

Reto Caluori, University of Basel, Communications, phone +41 61 207 24 95, email: reto.caluori@unibas.ch

Images

High-resolution images of the newly appointed professors are available in the media database.