Kerstin Göpfrich
Full Professor

Contact
Max Planck Institute for Medical Research
Jahnstr. 29, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Room 161A
Tel.: +49 6221 486-443
E-Mail: kerstin.goepfrich(at)mr.mpg.de
About me
I have always been curious about fundamental questions in science and long fascinated by the idea to engineer a cell from scratch. I am a professor at Heidelberg University at the Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH) and I am leading the Max Planck Reseach Group Biophysical Engineering of Life. Previously, as a Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in Stuttgart, I worked on bottom-up synthetic biology and microfluidics with Joachim Spatz. In April 2017, I completed my PhD in physics as a Gates Cambridge Fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK, where I built DNA origami nanopores in the group of Ulrich Keyser.
If I don’t do science, I like talking about it with students and the wider public, via webvideoconferencing on Ring-a-Scientist, twitter, youtube or media outlets like The Naked Scientists (BBC – Radio 5 live), ZDF neo or Spektrum der Wissenschaft.
Short Bio
2022 – present | Full professor (W3), Center for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), Heidelberg University |
2019 – present | Independent Max Planck Research Group Leader Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany Member of the Excellence Cluster 3D Matter Made to Order Fellow of the Max Planck School Matter to Life |
2017 – 2019 | Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, Germany |
2013 – 2017 | Ph.D. in Physics Gates Cambridge Fellow, Winton Fellow Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom |
2012 – 2013 | M.Phil. in Physics Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom |
2009 – 2012 | B.Sc. in Physics and Molecular Medicine University of Erlangen, Germany |