Ralf Reski

Ralf Reski (born November 18, 1958 in Gelsenkirchen) is a German Professor of Plant Biotechnology at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Freiburg.

Biography

Ralf Reski studied Biology, Chemistry and the Theory and Practice of Education at the Universities of Gießen und Hamburg.He was awarded his doctorate in Genetics in 1990 at the University of Hamburg and received his postdoctoral lecture qualification in Botany in 1994.From 1996 until 1999 he was a Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation.After various offers from universities within Germany and abroad he was appointed Professor at the University of Freiburg and became Head of the newly established Department of Plant Biotechnology.Since 2001 he is Director Plant Biotechnology of the Centre for Applied Biosciences (ZAB).Since 2002 Reski is member of the Editorial Board of "Plant Cell Reports", a well-established international plant science journal [http://www.springer.com/life+sci/cell+biology/journal/299?detailsPage=editorialBoard] .In 2004 he became a member of the International Moss Genome Consortium and in 2006 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Biology.He is Principal Investigator (PI) of the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM) as well as the Freiburg Initiative for Systems Biology (FRISYS) and the Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (bioss).

Ralf Reski has been a member of the Advisory Board of BioPro GmbH since 2003, an enterprise of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg.In 2007 Günther Oettinger, State Premier of Baden-Württemberg, asked Reski to join the newly instated Innovation Think-Tank of the state of Baden-Württemberg.In March 2008 Reski was voted President of the DNK, the German National Committee of the IUBS and IUMS within the InternationalCouncil for Science (ICSU).

Research

Ralf Reski's main area of research deals with genetics, proteins, metabolism and particularities in the cell development of moss plants, using the very efficient technique of homologous recombination Reski, R. (1998): Physcomitrella and Arabidopsis: the David and Goliath of reverse genetics. Trends in Plant Science 3, 209-210 [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TD1-3TDR5V7-5&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=814de6be1c3e4db9010cd1d37568f143] ] . With over 140 scientific publications to date he has contributed significantly towards mosses becoming a model plant in biological research on a worldwide scale.Just recently in December 2007 the complete genome of the moss Physcomitrella patens was deciphered Stefan A. Rensing et al.: The Physcomitrella Genome Reveals Evolutionary Insights into the Conquest of Land by Plants, Published Online im December 13, 2007; Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1150646 [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1150646] ] . This research was financed substantially by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Doe Joint Genome Institute: Why sequence Physcomitrella patens? [http://www.jgi.doe.gov/sequencing/why/CSP2005/physcomitrella.html] ] and the German National Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG).

As biotechnologists Reski and his co-workers have identified hitherto unknown genes and their functions for agriculture and forestry. The cultivation of moss cells and their use in pharmaceutical industry is also a main focal point of his research Reski, R., W. Frank (2005): Moss (Physcomitrella patens) functional genomics - Gene discovery and tool development with implications for crop plants and human health. Briefings in Functional Genomics & Proteomics 4, 48-57 [http://bfgp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/4/1/48] ] . Here the Reski lab relies increasingly on methods from the area of bioinformatics and systems biology, as implemented in the FORSYS Program funded by the German Federal Ministry of Science.

In 2000 Ralf Reski coined the term "plastoskeleton", analogous to the term "cytoskeleton" and presented a new concept in cell biology of how chloroplasts, the green cell organelles of plants change shape and divide Kiessling, J., S. Kruse, S.A. Rensing, K. Harter, E.L. Decker, R. Reski (2000): Visualization of a cytoskeleton-like FtsZ network in chloroplasts. Journal of Cell Biology 151, 945-950. [http://www.jcb.org/cgi/content/full/151/4/945] ] McFadden, G.I. (2000): Comment: Skeleton in the closet: How do chloroplasts stay in shape?. Journal of Cell Biology 151, F19-F21. [http://www.jcb.org/cgi/content/abstract/151/4/F19] ] Reski, R. (2002): Rings and networks: the amazing complexity of FtsZ in chloroplasts. Trends in Plant Science 7, 103-105. [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TD1-45BPP14-5&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=e919fb198466f4b9fc5f32c992b0733c] ]

Ralf Reski founded greenovation Biotech GmbH in Freiburg with colleagues in 1999, a biotechnology company which has developed a moss bioreactor for the production of pharmaceuticals, .thereby presenting a safe and inexpensive alternative to other production systems in the field of molecular farming.

Publications

* Reski, R., W.O. Abel (1992): Analyzing cytokinins and plastid differentiation at the molecular level: Interference with genome/plastome-interaction, light quality, developmental state and endogenous oscillators. In: Physiology and biochemistry of cytokinins in plants. M. Kaminek, D.W.S. Mok, E. Zazimalova (eds.), pp 255-260. SPB Academic Publishing bv, The Hague, The Netherlands (ISBN 978-0-849-36252-1]

* Reski, R. (1994): Plastid genes and chloroplast biogenesis. In: Cytokinins. Chemistry, Activity, and Function. D.W.S. Mok, M.C. Mok (eds.), pp 179-195. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Ann Arbor, London, Tokyo (ISBN 978-0-849-36252-1).

* Reski, R., K. Reutter, B. Kasten, M. Faust, S. Kruse, G. Gorr, R. Strepp, W.O. Abel (1995): Molecular analysis of chloroplast division. In: Current Issues in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology. M. Terzi, R. Cella, A. Falavigna (eds.), pp 291-296. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London (ISBN 978-0-792-33322-7).

* Neth, R., N. Drize, S. Gohla, R. Offergeld, R. Reski, S. Schrum (1995): Phytotherapeutische Forschung: Thuja occidentalis L. In: Jahrbuch Band 2. Karl und Veronica Carstens-Stiftung im Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. H. Albrecht, M. Frühwald (eds.), pp 240-251. Hippokrates Verlag, Stuttgart (ISBN 978-3-777-31232-3).

* Ye, F., W.O. Abel, R. Reski (1998): Isolation of plant mitochondrial RNA from green leaves. In: Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol. 86: RNA isolation and characterisation protocols. R. Rapley, D.L. Manning (eds.), pp. 33-38. Humana Press Inc., Totowa NY (ISBN 978-0-89603-494-5).

* Ye, F., R. Reski (1999): An improved method to isolate mitochondrial RNA from green plant tissue. In: The Nucleic Acid Protocols Handbook. R. Rapley (ed.). Humana Press, Totowa NY (ISBN 978-0-896-03459-4).

* Sperling, P., T. Egener, J. Lucht, R. Reski, P. Cirpus, E. Heinz (2002): Identification of a D5-fatty acid desaturase from Physcomitrella patens. In: Advanced Researches on Plant Lipids. N. Murata, M. Yamada, I. Nishida, J. Sekiya, H. Wada (eds.), pp. 113-116. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (ISBN 978-1-402-01105-4).

* Reski, R. (2003): Physcomitrella patens as a novel tool for plant functional genomics. In: Plant biotechnology 2002 and beyond. I.K. Vasil (ed.) Kluwer Acad. Publ., 205-209 (ISBN 978-1-402-01126-9).

* Rensing S.A., Lang D. and Reski R. (2003): "In silico" prediction of UTR repeats using clustered EST data. In: Proceedings of the German Conference on Bioinformatics 2003, Mewes H.-W., Heun V., Frishman D., Kramer S. (eds.), pp 117-122, Belleville Verlag Michael Farin, Munich, Germany (ISBN 3-540-56534-5]

* Holtorf, H., W. Frank, R. Reski (2004): Applied genomics in Physcomitrella. In A.J. Wood, M.J. Oliver, D.J. Cove (eds.) New frontiers in bryology: Physiology, molecular biology and applied genomics. Kluwer Academic Press, The Netherlands, pp 51-70 (ISBN 978-1-402-01996-8).

* Frank, W., H. Holtorf, R. Reski (2005): Functional genomics in Physcomitrella. In: Plant functional genomics. D. Leister (ed.), pp. 203-234. The Harworth Press, Binghamton, New York, USA (ISBN 978-1-560-22998-8).

References

External links

* [http://www.biologie.uni-freiburg.de/fakultaet/dekanat_en.php? Faculty of Biology, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg]
* [http://www.uni-freiburg.de/index_en.php Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg]
* [http://www.zab.uni-freiburg.de/ Centre for Applied Biology (ZAB)]
* [http://www.mossgenome.org/members.php Moss Genome Consortium]
* [http://www.mobilmed.uni-freiburg.de/ Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM)]
* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/standort/00238/index.html BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH]
* [http://www.bioss.uni-freiburg.de/Start-en/view?set_language=en Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (BIOSS)]
* [http://www.greenovation.com/english/index.php greenovation Biotech GmbH]
* [http://www.iubs-member-germany.de DNK, Deutsches Nationalkomitee Biologie]
* [http://www.plant-biotech.net/publications publications]
* [http://www.plant-biotech.net/ The Reski Lab]

press releases

* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/region/freiburg/magazin/03548/index.html Ralf Reski - a risk taker who enjoys his work]
* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/region/freiburg/magazin/01395/index.html "Moss bioreactors do not smell" - Interview with Professor Ralf Reski]
* [http://www.seedquest.com/News/releases/europe/Basf/N1462.htm BASF and Freiburg University to collaborate on plant biotechnology]
* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/region/freiburg/magazin/00824/index.html Deciphering the Physcomitrella patens Genome]
* [http://www.biotechnologie.de/bio/generator/Navigation/English/Services/search,did=70910.html?listBlId=17574&listXY=1&listST=moss%20reski The first decoded moss genome: From all-conquering country dweller to producer of medicines]
* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/region/freiburg/magazin/01913/index.html Eager for a more open debate]
* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/region/freiburg/magazin/02917/index.html Freiburg - a strong bioformatics location]
* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/region/freiburg/magazin/02551/index.html The moss Physcomitrella patens gives insights into RNA interference in plants]
* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/life/magazin/00392/index.html Green gene technology: research in Baden-Württemberg]
* [http://www.bio-pro.de/en/region/freiburg/magazin/04726/index.html Targeted gene replacement in barley]

Persondata
NAME= Reski, Ralf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Reski, Ralf
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Geneticist
DATE OF BIRTH= November 18, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH= Gelsenkirchen, Germany
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=