Roland Benz, member of the Rudolf Virchow Center, University of Würzburg, Germany and Wisdom-Professor in Biotechnology at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany is one of this year's two doctors who will be honoured by the faculty of medicine at Umeå University.
Roland Benz has had long time fruitful collaborations with several research groups at the department of Molecular Biology that now are members of UCMR and MIMS. He is an expert on the biophysics, biochemistry and molecular biology of membrane permeability and the mechanisms of transport through membranes. His research includes studies of general diffusion pores and of specific porins in the outer membrane of different Gram-negative bacteria, the processes involved in toxin transport across artificial lipid bilayer membranes, as well as the membrane permeability of cell organelles and import of toxins through lipid bilayer membranes in the target cells.
During several years as Professor for Biotechnology at Theodor-Boveri-Institute (Biocenter) of the University of Würzburg, Roland Benz also coordinated student exchanges in the Erasmus programme at Würzburg University and mediated many contacts that brought students to Umeå.
Press release of Umeå University (in Swedish only)Webpage of Roland Benz at Rudolf Virchow Center, WürzburgWepage Roland Benz research at Jacobs University, Bremen