Michael Sattler

Prof. Dr. Michael Sattler serves as Department Head of the Molecular Targets & Therapeutics Center and Director of the Institute of Structural Biology and Bavarian NMR Center at Helmholtz Munich. Concurrently, he holds the position of Professor of Biomolecular NMR in the Chemistry Department within the School of Natural Sciences at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

His academic background includes a Dr. phil. nat. in Chemistry from the University of Frankfurt (1995) and postdoctoral training at Abbott Labs, Chicago. He established his independent research group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg in 1997 before moving to Helmholtz Munich and TUM in 2007.

Sattler pioneers integrative structural biology approaches combining NMR spectroscopy, small angle scattering, crystallography, and cryo-EM to elucidate molecular mechanisms in biological pathways. His research emphasizes dynamics and transient regulatory interactions in RNA-based gene regulation (including alternative splicing and miRNA processing), molecular chaperones (Hsp90), peroxisome biogenesis, and cellular signaling. This work directly enables innovative structure-based drug discovery for cancer, genetic disorders, and infectious diseases.

His major honors include:

• 2020 Erwin-Schrödinger Prize/Stifterverband Science Award
• 2017 Elected Member of the Leopoldina, German National Academy of Sciences
• 2017 Elected Member ISMAR Council
• 2014 FEBS National Lecturer (SEBB, Granada)
• 2012 Elected EMBO Member
• 2011-2012 Visiting Professorship (Tianjin, China)
• 2005 Professor Invité (Ecole Normale Superieur, Paris)
• 2005 Jean-Francois Lefevre Lecturer (Strasbourg)

He currently leads the ERC Synergy Consortium UNLEASH (2023-2029) on splicing code control and has coordinated major EU Horizon 2020 initiatives including ITNs AEGIS (2016-2020) and RNAct (2018-2022). His leadership extends to co-organizing the biennial EMBO Practical Course on NMR spectroscopy since 1999, the 2017 Keystone Symposium on NMR in Life Sciences, and the 2019 International Conference on New Frontiers in Structure-based Drug Discovery.

Sattler directs the Bavarian NMR Center (www.bnmrz.org), which operates a 1.2 GHz NMR spectrometer and cryo-EM facilities, and leads a research group focused on translating structural insights into therapeutic development for human diseases.