Ernst Bamberg

Bamberg received his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Basel in 1971, and a habilitation in biophysical chemistry from the University of Konstanz in 1976. He was a Heisenberg fellow from 1979 to 1983, when he became head of an independent working group at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt/Main. In 1988, he became an adjunct professor at Frankfurt University, which named him a full professor of biophysical chemistry in 1993, and professor emeritus in 2009. He has also been a director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics since 1993, and a senior investigator at the Cluster of Excellence Frankfurt (CEF) since 2008.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cef-mc.de/index.php?id=284&L=-1%27%20?????|title=CEF-MC : People|website=www.cef-mc.de|access-date=2019-04-10}}

Bamberg's research focuses on channelrhodopsins. With Georg Nagel and Peter Hegemann, who were attempting to identify the proteins that allow Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a green alga, to move toward light using photocurrents, Bamberg was part of the first research team to isolate and characterize channelrhodopsin 2 (ChR2). “We had a hard time trying to convince people that it was true,” he told Nature later, but "Before we published the first papers [showing that algal proteins could generate currents in eukaryotic cells], we applied for a patent where we gave to our fantasy a free run about the possible applications of channelrhodopsins on electrically excitable cells, including some biomedical applications.”{{Cite journal|last=Baker|first=Monya|date=2011-11-29|title=The author file: Ernst Bamberg|journal=Nature Methods|language=en|volume=8|issue=12|pages=985|doi=10.1038/nmeth.1789|pmid=22238772|s2cid=315949|issn=1548-7105|doi-access=free}} In 2005, Bamberg and Nagel worked with Ed Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, and Feng Zhang to demonstrate that this light-gated channel could be used as an actuator to control neural activity, helping to lay the foundations for the study of optogenetics.{{Cite journal|date=2015-08-26|title=ChR2 coming of age|journal=Nature Neuroscience|language=en|volume=18|issue=9|pages=1191|doi=10.1038/nn.4103|pmid=26308975|issn=1546-1726|doi-access=free}}

• 1987 Boris Rajewsky Preis für Biophysik
• 2009 Stifterverbandspreis des Stifterverbands für die Deutsche Wissenschaft
• 2010 Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences, with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel{{Cite web|url=https://www.wiley.com//WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-67957.html|title=Wiley: Ninth Annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences Awarded to Dr. Peter Hegemann, Dr. Georg Nagel, and Dr. Ernst Bamberg|website=www.wiley.com|access-date=2019-04-10}}
• 2010 Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize for Technological Innovation
• 2011 Member of the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences{{Cite web |url=https://www.leopoldina.org/mitglieder/mitgliederverzeichnis/mitglieder/member/Member/show/7463/ |title=Mitglieder |access-date=2020-04-23 |archive-date=2020-06-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629164220/https://www.leopoldina.org/mitglieder/mitgliederverzeichnis/mitglieder/member/Member/show/7463/ |url-status=dead }}
• 2012 K. J. Zülch-Preis der Gertrud Reemtsma Stiftung, für neurologische Grundlagenforschung (basic neuroscience), with Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel, and Karl Deisseroth{{Cite web|url=https://www.mpg.de/6330620/zuelch-preis-_2012-optogenetik|title=Zülch-Preis 2012 für Begründer der Optogenetik|website=www.mpg.de|language=de|access-date=2019-04-10}}
• 2013 The Brain Prize from the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation, with Ed Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, Gero Miesenböck, and Georg Nagel{{Cite web|url=https://www.lundbeckfonden.com/en/thebrainprize/winners/|title=Prize Winners|website=Lundbeckfonden|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-10|archive-date=2020-05-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200513220313/https://www.lundbeckfonden.com/en/thebrainprize/winners/|url-status=dead}}
• 2019 Citation Laureate from the Web of Science Group{{Cite web|url=https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/solutions/citation-laureates/|title=Researchers of Nobel class: Citation Laureates 2019

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• 2019 Rumford Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, with Ed Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, Gero Miesenböck, and Georg Nagel{{Cite web|url=https://www.amacad.org/news/rumford-prize-optogenetics|title=Rumford Prize Awarded for the Invention and Refinement of Optogenetics|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|date=30 January 2019 |language=en|access-date=2019-04-10}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.lundbeckfonden.com/en/person/ernst-bamberg/|title=Ernst Bamberg|website=Lundbeckfonden|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-10|archive-date=2019-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410205228/https://www.lundbeckfonden.com/en/person/ernst-bamberg/|url-status=dead}}

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• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7kIUSvd1s Ernst Bamberg Hot Topics presentation: Optogenetics and hybrid-optical control of cells]
• German Wikipedia page

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Category:Living people

Category:1940 births

Category:German biophysicists

Category:Max Planck Institute directors