Professor Ulf Diederichsen, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, passed away on November 11, 2021.
Diederichsen’s research focused on the modification, specific detection, and conformational switching of oligonucleotides, peptides, and proteins, the examination of suitable model systems, and on influencing function and properties by synthesizing analogs of biomolecules.
Ulf Diederichsen was born on October 7, 1963, in Munich, Germany. He studied chemistry at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and received his Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Switzerland, in 1993 under the supervision of Albert Eschenmoser. After a research stay with Dennis P. Curran at the University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA, he completed his habilitation in 1999 on artificial nucleic acid structures at the Technical University of Munich. In 1999, Ulf Diederichsen accepted an appointment as Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Since 2001, he was a Professor at the University of Göttingen. Diederichsen was a visiting professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich for one year and a Goering Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA.
From 2005 to 2007, Ulf Diederichsen was Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, and from 2015 to 2021, he was Vice President for Research at the University of Göttingen. Diederichsen was a member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen) since 2012 and its president from October 2020 until his death.
Selected Publications
- A lysine–cysteine redox switch with an NOS bridge regulates enzyme function,
Marie Wensien, Fabian Rabe von Pappenheim, Lisa-Marie Funk, Patrick Kloskowski, Ute Curth, Ulf Diederichsen, Jon Uranga, Jin Ye, Pan Fang, Kuan-Ting Pan, Henning Urlaub, Ricardo A. Mata, Viktor Sautner, Kai Tittmann,
Nature 2021, 593, 460–464.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03513-3 - Supramolecular Self‐Assembly of β3‐Peptides Mediated by Janus‐Type Recognition Units,
Selda Kabatas Glowacki, Konrad Koszinowski, Dennis Hübner, Holm Frauendorf, Philipp Vana, Ulf Diederichsen,
Chemistry – A European Journal 2020, 26, 12145–12149.
https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202003107 - Membrane‐Associated Nucleobase‐Functionalized β‐Peptides (β‐PNAs) Affecting Membrane Support and Lipid Composition,
Geralin A. Höger, Markus Wiegand, Brigitte Worbs, Ulf Diederichsen,
ChemBioChem 2020, 21, 2599–2603.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202000172 - PNA Hybrid Sequences as Recognition Units in SNARE‐Protein‐Mimicking Peptides,
B. E. Hubrich, P. Kumar, H. Neitz, M. Grunwald, T. Grothe, P. J. Walla, R. Jahn, U. Diederichsen,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 14932-14936.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201805752 - Secondary ion mass spectrometry of genetically-encoded targets,
I.-C. Vreja, S. Kabatas, S. K. Saka, K. Kröhnert, C. Höschen, F. Opazo, U. Diederichsen, S. O. Rizzoli,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2015, 54, 5784–5788.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201411692 - Membrane protein sequestering by ionic protein–lipid interactions,
Geert van den Bogaart, Karsten Meyenberg, H. Jelger Risselada, Hayder Amin, Katrin I. Willig, Barbara E. Hubrich, Markus Dier, Stefan W. Hell, Helmut Grubmüller, Ulf Diederichsen, Reinhard Jahn,
Nature 2011, 479, 552–555.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10545 - TOPP: A Novel Nitroxide-Labeled Amino Acid for EPR Distance Measurements,
Sven Stoller, Giuseppe Sicoli, Tatiana Y. Baranova, Marina Bennati, Ulf Diederichsen,
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2011, 50, 9743–9746.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201103315 - Transmembrane domain peptide/peptide nucleic acid hybrid as a model of a SNARE protein in vesicle fusion,
A. S. Lygina, K. Meyenberg, R. Jahn, U. Diederichsen,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 8597–8601.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201101951 - 8-Vinyl-2’-deoxyguanosine as a Fluorescent 2’-Deoxyguanosine Mimic for Investigating DNA Hybridization and Topology,
A. Nadler, J. Strohmeier, U. Diederichsen,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 5392–5396.
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201100078
