Schulte-Merker: Fishing for genes

Stefan Schulte-Merker studied biology in Regensburg (Germany), Boulder (USA) and Tübingen (Germany), where he obtained his diploma in 1988. His PhD work in the lab of Prof. C. Nüsslein-Volhard at the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen focused on mesoderm formation in the zebrafish, his postdoctoral work with Prof. Jim Smith at the NIMR in London on growth factors in mesoderm induction. In 1995 he started his own group at the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, before, three years later, joining a biotech company that used zebrafish and mice for target discovery through large scale screens. He held positions of director of genetics and senior director of translational genetics at Artemis GmbH/Exelixis Inc. in Germany and San Francisco (USA), before returning to academia in 2004. He has been a staff member at the Hubrecht Institute since, pursuing his interests in vasculogenesis, lymph-angiogenesis and osteoblast function using the zebrafish as a model. In 2008 Stefan Schulte-Merker was appointed adjunct professor at Wageningen University.