Cell News 3
&
4/2016
22
MEMBERS
Prof. Dr. Stefan Jentsch
1955 – 2016
On October 29 our colleague Stefan Jentsch passed away at the
age of 61 after a short and severe illness. His 35-year career was
distinguished by groundbreaking research in cell biology, and ext-
raordinary passion and talent for inspiring and mentoring the next
generation of biologists.
Stefan Jentsch made numerous pioneering contributions to our
understanding of regulation by ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like pro-
teins. He was extraordinarily gifted at identifying new, often
unprecedented biological regulatory mechanisms. Although the
modification of proteins with the small protein ubiquitin was ori-
ginally thought to predominantly promote protein degradation by
the proteasome, Stefan Jentsch discovered that a vast array of
modifications by ubiquitin and related proteins fulfill a plethora
of additional essential functions in cellular regulation. Amongst
these, he found that the ubiquitin system plays critical roles in
DNA repair and maintaining genome stability. His fundamental
discoveries illuminated new molecular mechanisms of mutagene-
sis, and are of high medical relevance for understanding the origin
of genetic diseases, including cancer.
Stefan Jentsch studied biology at the Free University of Berlin
(1974-79), and performed his doctoral thesis on "DNA Modifica-
tions by Methyltransferases" with Thomas A. Trautner at the MPI
for Molecular Genetics (Ph.D. in 1983). During his postdoctoral
studies with Alexander Varshavsky at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (1985-88), Stefan began his groundbreaking work
on cellular regulation by the ubiquitin system. This topic hence-
forth played a central role in all his research, and he opened up
many new fields, initially at the Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratory of
the Max Planck Society in Tübingen (1988-93) and at the Center
for Molecular Biology in Heidelberg (ZMBH). Stefan Jentsch has
been a scientific member of the Max Planck Society and Director
of the Molecular Cell Biology Department at the Max Planck Insti-
tute for Biochemistry in Martinsried since 1998.
Stefan Jentsch was one of the internationally recognized, truly
outstanding scientists in the field of molecular cell biology. His
laboratory was both extraordinarily productive and most uncom-
monly creative. For his fundamental contributions to our under-
standing of cellular regulation by ubiquitin and ubiquitin-related
proteins he received many awards, including the Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz Prize of the German Research Council, the Max Planck Re-
search Prize, and the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine.
In addition to his research, Stefan Jentsch is widely recognized as
an extraordinary mentor. He was dedicated to training young sci-
entists at all levels. He leaves a remarkably rich legacy of doctoral
and postdoctoral students who have gone on to become interna-
tionally successful scientists. Stefan Jentsch had an infectious en-
thusiasm for science. He also instilled a genuine collegiality across
the generations of his students.
In Stefan Jentsch we lose not only an outstanding scientist, but
also a wonderful colleague. He was torn far too early from our
midst. His tragic, untimely death is an irreplaceable loss for the
world’s scientific community and for all of us at the institute.
Reference: Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried
(Bild: Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie)
