Dr. Jan-Michael Peters earned his Diploma in biology and his PhD in cell biology from the University of Heidelberg. He did a short post-doc with Werner Franke at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), before moving to the Harvard School of Medicine to continue his training with Marc Kirschner. Peters returned to Europe in 1996 to join the Research Institute for Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria. He has risen through the IMP and is now Scientific Director.
Peters’ lab studies how the protein cohesin establishes and maintains cohesion between newly synthesized sister chromatids during DNA replication and how this cohesion is released during mitosis. They are also investigating the role of cohesin in structuring chromatin and regulating gene expression during the G1 phase of the cell cycle and in post-mitotic cells.
Peters has received numerous awards for his research including the prestigious Wittgenstein Prize from the Austrian Ministry for Science in 2011. He is an elected member of EMBO and has been the coordinator for two EU Integrated Projects, MitoCheck and MitoSys. Learn more about Peters’ research here.
