Gregor Eichele, Ph.D.

Max Planck Institute

Gregor Eichele is head of the Genes and Behavior Department of the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen (Germany). His research focuses on the development and function of the mammalian nervous system. Eichele graduated in chemistry at the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 1976 and received his Ph.D. in biophysics in 1981 from the same institution. His doctoral work was in protein crystallography and encompassed structure determination and biochemical studies in crystals of vitamin B6-dependent enzymes. In 1982 he joined the laboratory of Bruce Alberts at the University of California, San Francisco. During his postdoctoral work, Eichele explored mechanisms of pattern formation in vertebrate embryos. Specifically, he investigated the role of retinoids (vitamin A derivatives) during embryonic development. He continued this work in his own laboratory at Harvard Medical School (1985-1990) where he also began to study how retinoids regulate the expression of genes critical for morphogenesis. Between 1991 and 1998 Eichele established and directed a graduate program in developmental biology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

At Baylor, his research interest developed a focus on the nervous system (brain development, mechanism of the circadian clock, neuronal migration). In 1999, Eichele accepted the directorship of the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Endocrinology in Hannover (Germany). There he developed new high-throughput technologies suitable to study gene expression patterns in the mammalian brain on a genome-wide scale. In 2006 the department moved to Göttingen. The technology is currently being used by Dr. Eichele to generate expression atlases of mouse embryos and postnatal rat brain. He is also interested in applying high-throughput approaches in the study of metabolism.