Priv. Doz. Dr. Stefan Lichtenthaler

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Lichtenthaler studied chemistry in Karlsruhe, Heidelberg and Montpellier (France) and was honored for his academic achivements with the Dr. Sophie Bernthsen Prize from the University of Heidelberg. For his doctoral studies (1994) he joined Prof. K. Beyreuther of the Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), University of Heidelberg, where he investigated the molecular causes of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A highlight of this work was the mechanistic analysis of an enzyme that plays a central role in the development of AD.

As a postdoc at Harvard Medical School, Boston, (1999-2002) Dr. Lichtenthaler was increasingly interested in  modern methods of genomics and proteomics and established a robotic high-throughput method with which he identified genes involved in disease-relevant signal transduction pathways in the cell. In the year 2002 he moved to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU), where he headed a scientific junior research group. Since October 2009 Dr. Lichtenthaler is a group leader at the DZNE site in Munich. Additionally, he is a faculty member in the Medical School of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU).

His research includes the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and related diseases. The aim of his research is to understand the basic cellular mechanisms, which are responsible for the development of neurodegenerative diseases, and to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Dr. Lichtenthaler uses a variety of different experimental methods for his research, among others methods from biochemistry and molecular biology as well as functional genomics and proteomics.