Cell News 3
&
4/2016
21
Klaus Weber died on August 8, 2016, after a long illness. We have lost a
scientific giant, a pioneer of the golden ages of cell biology, a colleague,
mentor and friend.
Klaus was a central figure in Cell Biology, in fact he shaped modern
cell biology worldwide and of course also in Germany. Our view on cell
architecture and dynamics is intimately connected to Klaus’ work, he
has been an outstanding and influential figure in the true meaning of
the word.
Klaus was born in 1936 in Lodz, Poland, studied Chemistry in Freiburg
and earned his graduate degree in Chemistry also from the University
of Freiburg in 1964. He then joined the laboratory of James Watson
at Harvard University and later established his own group, working on
aspartate transcarbamylase, RNA phages and the lac repressor. In 1972,
he became Full Professor at Harvard and returned to Germany in 1975
where he was offered the position of Director of the Department of Bio-
chemistry and Cell Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical
Chemistry in Göttingen. He stayed in Göttingen for the remainder of his
career, and also as an Emeritus Director at the institute continued to
make important scientific contributions.
Klaus had many talents and qualities. Perhaps the most prominent one
was his never-ending curiosity combined with the desire to seek new
challenges. The following example characterizes his restless and sharp
mind: Klaus was a full professor at Harvard and a well established sci-
entist in the gene regulation field, when during a stay at the Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratories he was attracted by ‘insoluble‘ cellular structures,
the cytoskeleton. On the spot, this new topic became the focus of his
research in the years to come. He switched fields completely, only to
again establish himself as a leading figure, now in this newly develo-
ping area dealing with the “cell’s molecular anatomy” as Klaus put it. By
elegantly combining cell biology and immunofluorescence microscopy
with strong protein biochemistry, Klaus not only revealed the beauty of
cytoskeletal structures but also determined their molecular compositi-
on and dynamics, first of the actin cytoskeleton but soon thereafter also
of microtubules and intermediate filaments. His department at the Max
Planck Institute in Göttingen, very appropriately named Biochemistry
and Cell Biology, soon became a center of the cytoskeleton world and
attracted many outstanding scientists to work with Klaus, irrespective
of the stage of their career. Klaus Weber’s important scientific contribu-
tions are too numerous to even make an attempt to address them here.
However, it should be said that in addition to contributing new scienti-
fic findings and concepts, Klaus always sought to develop technologies,
knowing that life science is technology-driven. Again there are way too
many technological advancements from Klaus’ lab to list them here,
but two have been truly outstanding and have moved our entire area of
research: His development, together with his wife and almost life-long
collaborator Mary Osborn, of SDS-PAGE as a fast and reliable tool to
determine the molecular weights of proteins, and the introduction, to-
gether with Thomas Tuschl, of small interfering RNAs as tools to study
gene function in mammalian cells. In recognition of his outstanding
achievements, Klaus has received many honours and awards including
the Carl Zeiss Lecture from the German Society for Cell Biology and the
Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine.
Klaus Weber's devotion to and excitement for science and his deep in-
terest in a wide range of biological problems made it a unique expe-
rience to meet him and a privilege to work with him. He was always
full of ideas, sharp-witted when it came to identifying problems and to
criticize flaws, on top of every experimental detail and method. That
was accompanied by an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the rele-
vant literature. Klaus’ devotion to science was without compromise; he
wanted to get to the bottom of the problem, no matter whether this
required the use of new techniques or the blazing of new trails. Under-
standing was his philosophy.
In every respect, Klaus was an extremely influential scientist. He shaped
and moved an entirely new area of cell biology and he could only do
so because of his visions and the accuracy of his work. People working
with him experienced this on a daily basis. If you showed Klaus a novel
and exciting result, he asked how many times you had reproduced it
and usually requested a better quality gel or microscopy image. Once
all this was accomplished, Klaus would write the paper in his meticu-
lous hand, usually in no longer than a morning and in a close to be
submitted version. Klaus also shaped cell biology because he affected
many scientists who stayed in his lab for a part of their career and then
moved on to become leading figures in the field. Again, too many to be
mentioned here but you can ask almost anybody in the field and she or
he can report on Klaus Weber giving important advice.
We will miss Klaus, his never-ending curiosity, his advice, his phone
calls (usually in the morning) discussing new developments and his very
special sense of humor. We sympathize with Mary Osborn, his wife and
life-long collaborator.
Volker Gerke, Mechthild Hatzfeld, Nils Johnsson, Thomas Magin
PROF. DR. KLAUS WEBER
MEMBERS
