Dr. Friedrich Götz  

Professor of Microbiology

Department of Microbial Genetics

Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine Tübingen (IMIT)

Faculty of Science

The University of Tübingen

E-mail Address: friedrich.goetz@uni-tuebingen.de

Phone: +49 7071 2974128

Address: Auf der Morgenstelle 28, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany

CV

Biography

Prof. Dr. Friedrich Götz studied Biology and Chemistry at the University of München (LMU). In 1978, he finished his Ph.D. in Microbiology and habilitated in 1985. In 1987, he was appointed professor and chair of Microbial Genetics Department at the University of Tübingen. From 2015 till now, he is endowed with senior-professorship.

From 1979 to 1981, he received an EMBO long term postdoctoral fellowship at the Biomedical Center, Uppsala, Sweden.  In 1989, he received the DECHEMA Award for developing a new cloning system in Staphylococcus carnosus. Later on in 1991, he received Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie (DGHM) Award for the significant scientific work he had done in Microbial Genetics. He served as the dean of the Biology Faculty and from 2003 – 2009, he was the president and then the vice-president of the Association of General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) in Germany. In 2009, he has received the DGHM Lecturer Award which honors internationally renowned researchers in the fields of infection research, immunology or hygiene. In 2009, he co-founded the Interfaculty Institute for Microbiology and Infection-medicine Tübingen (IMIT) which is the association of the former separated microbiological institutes at the Science Faculty and the Medical Microbiology and Clinical Infectiology and Immunology. He is currently a member of the Cluster of Excellence—Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections (CMFI) at the University of Tübingen where in cooperation with his co-researchers he attempts to develop new strategies to control infections with his co-researchers.

Dr. Götz works as a reviewer and an associate editor for many microbiology/immunology related journals and he is also a consultant for various national and international research institutions. Since 2011, he has been a member of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM). He has supervised more than 120 Ph.D. candidates and postdocs and 15 of them have obtained professorship positions.  

Dr. Götz is a leading scientist in infection biology, particularly of Staphylococcus species. The objectives of his research are: The physiology of staphylococci in biofilms, protein excretion pathways, lipoproteins as key players in immune response and virulence, developing of new antimicrobial compounds and mode of action.

According to google scholar Dr. Götz’s h-index is 94. He has published more than 380 peer-reviewed papers which have been cited more than 29,000 times.

Research Priorities:

Dr. Götz research priority is the study of bacterial physiology and bacteria host interaction. Members of the bacterial genus Staphylococcus are widespread as commensals of humans and animals where they colonize the skin or mucous membranes. This co-existence remains mostly untroubled, especially for the healthy host. However, bacteria may pose a serious threat for human and animals when they get access to inner organs of the body. How the bacteria counteract or evade our immune system, how they invade host cells where they are protected from antibodies and antibiotics and how newly discovered antibiotics act are the topics of Friedrich (Fritz) Götz’ research team.

Previous Academic Collaborations with SUMS:

• Joint projects on antimicrobial peptides and  bioactive amines