Friedrich Förster new scientific director of the Bijvoet Centre

Per September 1, prof. dr. Friedrich Förster has been appointed as the new scientific director of the Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research at the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Science of Utrecht University. He takes over this responsibility from prof. Alexandre Bonvin, who has been the scientific director since 2019.

The Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research studies how biomolecules function in cells and how they behave in health and disease. The focus of the centre is on the relation between the structure and function of biomolecules and their interactions inside the living cell.

Friedrich Förster is Professor of Cryo-electron microscopy and head of the In Situ Structural Biology Lab, part of the Structural Biochemistry section. His laboratory focuses on the structural characterization of membrane-associated processes and those carried out by transient soluble assemblies using electron cryo-microscopy approaches. The work includes both development of computational methods (e.g., cryo subtomogram analysis, integrative modeling) and experimental studies ranging from isolated protein complexes to whole cells. A strong basis on physics and computation allows his group to address structural biology questions from unusual angles at the interface of molecular and cellular structural biology. Main biological interests include a molecular understanding of the biogenesis of proteins at organelle membranes studies and its regulation in health and disease.