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The evolutionary biologist Dr. Georg Hochberg has been awarded a LOEWE top professorship at the Philipps University of Marburg. The state of Hesse is thus supporting the “Microbes-4-Climate” research project in the full application phase as part of the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments. The LOEWE professorship will be funded over five years with around 2.8 million euros from LOEWE funds.

 “The nationwide competition for excellence is now entering the decisive phase and I am delighted that Dr. Hochberg, an internationally renowned expert, is supporting the highly relevant research into microbial contributions to climate change,” said Science Minister Timon Gremmels. “Dr. Hochberg has done groundbreaking work on the molecular evolution of proteins. His research offers enormous potential for biotechnology applications and has already improved our understanding of protein structures and functions as well as increasing crop yields.”

The cause of the climate crisis is essentially a man-made imbalance in the carbon cycle. Microorganisms play a key role in the formation and conversion of greenhouse gases. At the same time, they also offer opportunities to convert these greenhouse gases into molecules that are harmful to the climate. As part of the Cluster of Excellence project “Microbes for Climate (M4C)”, researchers in Marburg want to create the knowledge basis for a balanced carbon cycle in the future. Dr. Hochberg's team will investigate the question of how the metabolic enzymes most important for life have developed in the course of evolution. As there are no molecular fossils, the details of these processes are still unknown. However, understanding them is of crucial importance for the development of new types of enzymes, which can be used not least to convert greenhouse gases.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Nauss, President of the Philipps University of Marburg, says: “Georg Hochberg is an outstanding and exceptional scientist who is making significant progress in microbiological research in Marburg. We are delighted that, with the support of the state of Hesse, we have been able to offer this top researcher a perspective at Philipps-Universität and, with his support, to advance the Cluster of Excellence M4C in our profile-forming research focus Microbiology, Biodiversity, Climate.”

Dr. Georg Hochberg has headed the “Evolutionary Biochemistry” research group at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology since 2019 and is also a junior research group leader at the Center for Synthetic Microbiology at Philipps-Universität Marburg. After studying biology and completing his doctorate at the University of Oxford, he previously carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago. 2022 he received an ERC Starting Grant.