Prof. Dr. Ulrich Gerland

Academic Career and Research Areas

Professor Gerland (b. 1970) conducts research into the interplay of biophysical and biochemical processes. He devises models to explore how biological functions emerge and which factors limit these functions. A quantitative characterization of this kind of biomolecular systems is of relevance to both basic science, e.g. within the framework of the Graduate School of Quantitative Biosciences Munich (QBM), and to applications in nano-biotechnology, e.g. within the framework of the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM) cluster of excellence.

Professor Gerland studied Physics at the Universities of Dortmund and Heidelberg. He obtained his doctoral degree in 1998 from the University of Heidelberg for his work on the quantum mechanics of chaotic systems. His PhD research was conducted at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics. After working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Karlsruhe and the University of California, San Diego, he started a junior research group at LMU Munich in 2003. His first faculty appointment took him to the University of Cologne in 2006. He returned to LMU Munich in 2008. He has been teaching and conducting research at TUM since 2014.

Awards

  • BioSysNet Grant of the Bavarian Center for Molecular Biosystems (2012)
  • Emmy Noether Fellowship of the German Research Foundation (2003)

Möbius W, Osberg B, Tsankov AM, Rando OJ, and Gerland U: “Toward a unified physical model of nucleosome patterns flanking transcription start sites”. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2013; 110(14), 5719-5724.

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Buchner A, Tostevin F, and Gerland U: “Clustering and optimal arrangement of enzymes in reaction-diffusion systems”. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2013; 110(20): 208104.

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Gerland U and Hwa T: “Evolutionary selection between alternative modes of gene regulation”. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2009; 106(22): 8841-8846.

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Möbius W, Neher R, and Gerland U: “Kinetic accessibility of buried DNA sites in nucleosomes”. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2006; 97(20): 208102.

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Gerland U, Moroz JD, and Hwa T: “Physical constraints and functional characteristics of Transcription Factor-DNA interaction”. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2002; 99(19): 12105–12110.

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