Herbert Waldmann studied chemistry and completed his PhD in organic chemistry in 1985 working with Horst Kunz. After a two year postdoctoral fellowship with George Whitesides at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA he pursued an academic career and qualified as Professor at the University of Mainz in 1991. Shortly thereafter he was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Bonn. In 1993 he became Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe.
Since 1999 he has headed the Department of Chemical Biology at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology and, concurrently, has also held the position of Full Professor of Biochemistry at the Technische Universität Dortmund. Since 2005 he has headed the Chemical Genomics Center of the Max Planck Society. Author of more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific publications, he has been awarded numerous academic distinctions, including the Otto Bayer Prize, the Emil-Fischer Medal of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), one of the highest distinction in Organic Chemistry in Germany, the Hans-Herloff-Inhoffen-Medal and the Max Bergmann Medal. In 2014, he received an Honorary Doctorate by Leiden University, NL, for his contributions to the field of Chemical Biology.
He is a member of several Editorial Boards of international journals such as Angewandte Chemie, and ChemBioChem, and he is the European Editor-in-Chief for Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry. He also serves on various Advisory Boards including Max Planck Innovation GmbH (Chairman) and Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation and he is member of the Scientific Committee of the Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie, Bordeaux, France. For more than 20 years Herbert Waldmann has been a scientific consultant and advisor to major pharmaceutical, agrochemical and chemical companies and biotechnology companies.
Vita
Education
1976 – 1985
Studied Chemistry at the University of Mainz, Germany.
Received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1985 under the guidance of Prof. H. Kunz
1985 – 1986
Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. George Whitesides at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
1986 – 1991
Habilitation at the University of Mainz. Obtained tenure in 1991
Current Positions
1999 – now
Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology,
Department of Chemical Biology, Dortmund, Germany
1999 – now
Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the TU Dortmund University, Germany.
2005 – now
Head of the Chemical Genomics Centre of the Max Planck Society, Dortmund, Germany
Previous Positions
1991 – 1993
Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany
1993 – 1999
Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany
2005 to date
Head of the Chemical Genomics Centre of the Max Planck Society, Dortmund, Germany
2007 – 2008
Managing Director of the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research (“caesar”), Bonn, Germany
2014
Honorary Doctorate (Dr. h. c.) bestowed by Leiden University, NL
Awards and Recognitions
1982
Adolf-Todt-Award
1986
Friedrich Weygand Award for the Advancement of Peptide Chemistry
1986
Award of the Johannes-Gutenberg-University of Mainz
1991
Habilitanden-Preis of the ADUC
1992
Carl Duisberg Award of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker
1992
Dozenten-Price of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie
1997
Steinhofer Award of the Steinhofer Foundation, University of Freiburg
2001
Otto-Bayer-Award
2003
Max-Bergmann Medal
2004
Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Halle/Saale
2006
Glaxo SmithKline-Award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Chemical Biology
2009
NRW Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste
2009
Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz
2010
Hans-Herloff Inhoffen-Medaille 2010
2011
Wilhelm-Manchot Research Professor- and Lectureship, TU Munich
2011
ERC Advanced Investigator Grant of the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)
2012
Emil Fischer Medal of the GDCh (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker)
2013 - 2016
Visiting Scientist at RIKEN, Japan
2014
Honorary Doctorate (Dr. h. c.) bestowed by Leiden University, NL
2015 - 2017
Cheney Professor, University of Leeds, UK
2016
Nauta Professor, VU Amsterdam
2017
Paul Karrer Medal, Universität Zürich
Selected Publications 2013 - 2024
PubMed List>
Publication list 01/2024
Tong Y, Lee Y, Liu X, Childs-Disney JL, Suresh BM, Benhamou RI, Yang C, Li W, Costales MG, Haniff HS, Sievers S, Abegg D, Wegner T, Paulisch TO, Lekah E, Grefe M, Crynen G, Van Meter M, Wang T, Gibaut QMR, Cleveland JL, Adibekian A, Glorius F, Waldmann H, Disney MD (2023). Programming inactive RNA-binding small molecules into bioactive degraders. Nature
Source
Akbarzadeh M, Flegel J, Patil S, Shang E, Narayan R, Buchholzer M, Jasemi NSK, Grigalunas M, Krzyzanowski A, Abegg D, Shuster A, Potowski M, Karatas H, Karageorgis G, Mosaddeghzadeh N, Zischinsky ML, Merten C, Golz C, Brieger L, Strohmann C, Antonchick AP, Janning P, Adibekian A, Goody RS, Ahmadian MR, Ziegler S, Waldmann H (2022). The Pseudo-Natural Product Rhonin Targets RHOGDI. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl.
Source
Grigalunas M, Burhop A, Zinken S, Pahl A, Gally JM, Wild N, Mantel Y, Sievers S, Foley DJ, Scheel R, Strohmann C, Antonchick AP, Waldmann H (2021). Natural product fragment combination to performance-diverse pseudo-natural products. Nat Commun.
Source
Schneidewind T, Brause A, Schölermann B, Sievers S, Pahl A, Sankar MG, Winzker M, Janning P, Kumar K, Ziegler S, Waldmann H (2021). Combined morphological and proteome profiling reveals target-independent impairment of cholesterol homeostasis. Cell Chem Biol.
Source
Hennes E, Lampe P, Dötsch L, Bruning N, Pulvermacher LM, Sievers S, Ziegler S, Waldmann H (2021). Cell-Based Identification of New IDO1 Modulator Chemotypes Angew Chem Int Ed Engl.
Source
Karageorgis G, Foley DJ, Laraia L and Waldmann H (2020). Synthesis of Indomorphan Pseudo Natural Product Inhibitors of Glucose Transporters GLUT-1 and -3. Nat Chem
doi: 10.1038/s41557-019-0411-x
Ceballos J, Schwalfenberg M, Karageorgis G, Reckzeh ES, Sievers S, Ostermann C, Pahl A, Sellstedt M, Nowacki J, Carnero Corrales M, Wilke J, Laraia L, Tschapalda K, Metz M, Sehr DA, Brand S, Winklhofer K, Janning P, Ziegler S, Waldmann H (2019). Synthesis of Indomorphan Pseudo Natural Product Inhibitors of Glucose Transporters GLUT-1 and -3. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
doi: 10.1002/anie.201909518.
Kremer L, Hennes E, Brause A, Ursu A, Robke L, Matsubayashi HT, Nihongaki Y, Flegel J, Mejdrová I, Eickhoff J, Baumann M, Nencka R, Janning P, Kordes S, Schöler HR, Sterneckert J, Inoue T, Ziegler S, Waldmann H (2019). Discovery of the Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitor Pipinib that Targets PI4KIIIß. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
doi: 10.1002/anie.201907632.
Laraia L, Friese A, Corkery Dp, Konstantinidis G, Erwin N, Hofer W, Karatas H, Klewer L, Brockmeyer A, Metz M, Schölermann B, Dwivedi M, Li L, Rios-Munoz P, Köhn M, Winter R, Vetter IR, Ziegler S, Janning P, Wu YW and Waldmann H (2019). The cholesterol transfer protein GRAMD1A regulates autophagosome biogenesis Nat Chem Biol
doi.org/10.1038/s41589-019-0307-5
Karageorgis G, Reckzeh ES, Ceballos J, Schwalfenberg M, Sievers S, Ostermann C, Pahl A, Ziegler S, Waldmann H (2018). Chromopynones are pseudo natural product glucose uptake inhibitors targeting glucose transporters GLUT-1 and -3. Nat Chem
doi: 10.1038/s41557-018-0132-6.
Brand S, Roy S, Schröder P, Rathmer B, Roos J, Kapoor S, Patil S, Pommerenke C, Maier T, Janning P, Eberth S, Steinhilber D, Schade D, Schneider G, Kumar K, Ziegler S, Waldmann H (2018). Combined proteomic and in silico target identification reveal a role for 5-Lipoxygenase in developmental signaling pathways. Cell Chem Bio
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2018.05.016
Lee YC, Kumar K, Waldmann H (2017). Ligand-directed Divergent Synthesis of Carbo- and Heterocyclic Ring Systems. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
doi: 10.1002/anie.201710247.
Kremer L, Schultz-Fademrecht C, Baumann M, Habenberger P, Choidas A, Klebl B, Kordes S, Schöler HJ, Sterneckert J, Ziegler S, Schneider G., Waldmann H (2017). Discovery of a Novel Hedgehog Signaling Pathway Inhibitor by Cell-based Compound Discovery and Target Prediction. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
doi: 10.1002/anie.201707394.
Robke L, Laraia L, Carnero Corrales MA, Konstantinidis G, Muroi M, Richters A, Winzker M, Engbring T, Tomassi S, Watanabe N, Osada H, Rauh D, Waldmann H, Wu Y, Engel J. (2017). Small-Molecule Inhibition of the UNC119-Cargo Interaction. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
doi: 10.1002/anie.201703738.
Lee YC, Patil S, Golz C, Strohmann C, Ziegler S, Kumar K, Waldmann H (2017). A ligand-directed divergent catalytic approach to establish structural and functional scaffold diversity. Nat Commun 8:14043
doi: 10.1038/ncomms14043.
Martín-Gago P, Fansa EK, Klein CH, Murarka S, Janning P, Schürmann M, Metz M, Ismail S, Schultz-Fademrecht C, Baumann M, Bastiaens PI, Wittinghofer A, Waldmann H (2017). A PDE6δ-KRas Inhibitor Chemotype with up to Seven H-Bonds and Picomolar Affinity that Prevents Efficient Inhibitor Release by Arl2. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
doi: 10.1002/anie.201610957.
Xu H, Golz C, Strohmann C, Antonchick AP & Waldmann H (2016). Enantiodivergent Combination of Natural Product Scaffolds Enabled by Catalytic Enantioselective Cycloaddition. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 55(27):7761-5.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201602084.
Qian Y, Schürmann M, Janning P, Hedberg C & Waldmann H (2016). Activity-Based Proteome Profiling Probes Based on Woodward's Reagent K with Distinct Target Selectivity. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 55(27):7766-71.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201602666.
Papke B, Murarka S, Vogel HA, Martín-Gago P, Kovacevic M, Truxius DC, Fansa EK, Ismail S, Zimmermann G, Heinelt K, Schultz-Fademrecht C, Al Saabi A, Baumann M, Nussbaumer P, Wittinghofer A, Waldmann H, Bastiaens PI (2016). Identification of pyrazolopyridazinones as PDEδ inhibitors. Nat Commun 7:11360.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms11360.
Ursu A, Illich DJ, Takemoto Y, Porfetye AT, Zhang M, Brockmeyer A, Janning P, Watanabe N, Osada H, Vetter IR, Ziegler S, Schöler HR & Waldmann H (2016). Epiblastin A Induces Reprogramming of Epiblast Stem Cells Into Embryonic Stem Cells by Inhibition of Casein Kinase 1. Cell Chem Biol 23(4):494-507.
doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2016.02.015.
Schröder P, Förster T, Kleine S, Becker C, Richters A, Ziegler S, Rauh D, Kumar K & Waldmann H (2015). Neuritogenic militarinone-inspired 4-hydroxypyridones target the stress pathway kinase MAP4K4. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 54(42):12398-12403.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201501515.
Švenda J, Sheremet M, Kremer L, Maier L, Bauer JO, Strohmann C, Ziegler S, Kumar K & Waldmann H (2015). Biology-oriented synthesis of a withanolide-inspired compound collection reveals novel modulators of hedgehog signaling. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 54(19):5596-5602.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201409942.
Akbulut Y, Gaunt HJ, Muraki K, Ludlow MJ, Amer MS, Bruns A, Vasudev NS, Radtke L, Willot M, Hahn S, Seitz T, Ziegler S, Christmann M, Beech DJ & Waldmann H (2015). (-)-Englerin A is a potent and selective activator of TRPC4 and TRPC5 calcium channels. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 54(12):3787-3791.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201411511.
Vidadala SR, Golz C, Strohmann C, Daniliuc CG & Waldmann H (2015). Highly enantioselective intramolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition: a route to piperidino-pyrrolizidines. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 54(2):651-655.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201409942.
Eschenbrenner-Lux V, Küchler P, Ziegler S, Kumar K & Waldmann H (2014). An enantioselective inverse-electron-demand imino Diels-Alder reaction. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 53(8):2134-2137.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201309022.
Spiegel J, Cromm PM, Itzen A, Goody RS, Grossmann TN & Waldmann H (2014). Direct Targeting of Rab-GTPase–Effector Interactions. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 53(9):2498-2503.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201308568.