Education
Rüdiger Klein studied biology at the universities of Marburg and Tübingen and at the Juniata College (United States of America). He gained his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick (National Cancer Institute-Frederick) (United States of America) and at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute (United States of America).
Career
He is director at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and head of the department Molecules - Signaling - Development. Afterwards, he led a junior research group at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) in Heidelberg. In 2001, he was appointed director at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology.
Rüdiger Klein’s scientific research is focused on the molecular mechanisms which allow nerve cells to communicate.
Rüdiger Klein’s work led to a number of scientific findings. Among these were
the discovery of the receptors (TRK) of certain nerve growth factors.
(Klein et al, Cell 1991a,b)
the proof that certain signalling molecules (ephrins) guide the growth direction of nerve cell axons via repulsion. (Henkemeyer et al, Cell 1996.
Orioli et al, European Molecular Biology Organization Journal 1996.
Brückner et al, Science 1997)
the observation that ephrins regulate not only the development of the nervous system but also that of the lymphatic system and blood vessels. (Adams et al, Genes Development 1999. Mäkinen et al Genes Development 2005).