Brenda A. Schulman

Brenda A. Schulman is a Professor at the Technical University of Munich, Department of Chemistry, and Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry since 2017. She previously held a primary faculty appointment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (2001–2017) and remains an adjunct faculty member there. Her research focuses on structural biology, ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, and cellular signaling mechanisms in disease.

• Born in Tucson, Arizona (1967)
• Ph.D. in Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1996)
• Postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Key research areas include ubiquitin ligase mechanisms, protein degradation pathways, and structural insights into cellular regulation. Her work bridges biochemistry, molecular biology, and translational medicine, particularly in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

Major awards include the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2023), two ERC Advanced Grants (2018 and 2023), the Leibniz Prize (2019), and election to the National Academy of Sciences (2014) and German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2019).

She has held leadership roles at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and contributed to foundational discoveries in ubiquitin signaling. Her collaborative work spans institutions, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.