John Collins

Born in 1941, Klaus Buchholz studied chemistry at the universities of Saarbrücken und Heidelberg (Germany), graduating in 1967. In 1969 he received his PhD from the Technical University of Munich, after which he worked as a researcher with a group on biocatalysis at Dechema e.V. in Frankfurt/Main. In 1981 he received his Habilitation at the Technical University of Braunschweig, where he then became department head at the Institute for Agricultural Technology and Sugar Industry. In 1991 he became Professor at the Institute for Chemical Engineering. His main research areas include biocatalysts, enzymatic synthesis of carbohydrates, and environmental biotechnology. He is also the author of a well-known textbook on biocatalysts and an advisory board member of several journals. Born in 1945, John Collins studied Microbiology (B.Sc.) at University College, London University, and a doctorate (Ph.D.; 1971) at the University of Leicester, UK. Postdoctoral work was carried out at UCSD, La Jolla 1971-4 with Don Helinski at the time DNA cloning was developed in collaboration with the Cohen and Boyer labs. He brought this technology to the University of Copenhagen, developing gene cloning methods to isolate and study bacterial and eukaryotic genes and how they are regulated. In 1975 he joined the German National Center for Biotechnological Research (GBF; now HZI) in Braunschweig initiating some of the first experiments to apply gene technology to biotechnological projects (Penicillin acylase, interferon ß; Cytomegalovirus; mutein design of protease inhibitors). In 1987 he accepted a joint appointment as section Head for Cell Biology and Genetics at the GBF and as Professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig. He has worked as international adviser to a number of governments and institutes and lectures on biotechnology, intellectual property, genetics and evolution. He is an elected EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organisation) member and was a founding member of the Human Genome Organistion (HUGO). In 1997 he founded a Biotech Company which was acquired by a Californian Company in 2002. His current work is directed at the development of Inhibitors of Hepatitis C virus using combinatorial biology as well as trying to explain the impact of scientific developments to the informed public.