Born 1956 in Wuppertal. Study of biochemistry in Tübingen and Munich, doctorate (1985), Habilitation in biochemistry Univ. of Basel (1990), head of an independent research group at the MPI for Immunobiology in Freiburg (1990-1995), Full Professor for Cell Biology, Univ. of Münster (since 1994), Director and Scientific Member at the MPI for Physiological and Clinical Research (since 1999), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine (since 2001).