Prof. Ivan Dikic joins the Scientific Advisory Board
Ivan Dikic was born and brought up in Croatia, where he was trained as a medical doctor, he obtained his PhD in molecular biology from the University of Zagreb while working under the supervision of Joseph Schlessinger at New York University Medical Center, USA. He became a Group Leader at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Uppsala, Sweden before moving to Frankfurt in 2002. He is currently a Professor and director of the Institute of Biochemistry at the Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany and at the start of 2009 became the Scientific Director of the FMLS (Frankfurt Institute for Molecular Life Sciences).
Ivan is widely recognised as one of the leading scientists working on the ubiquitin system. His research has pioneered the concept that ubiquitin acts as a classical signaling messenger, being recognised by specific ubiquitin-binding domains (UBD) that are present in cellular proteins, and which relay ubiquitin signals into appropriate cellular responses. His work has explained how specific ubiquitin-binding domains regulate a variety of processes, including immunological responses, DNA repair, proteasomal degradation and receptor-mediated endocytosis. One of his current interests is to understand the role of selective autophagy receptors that bind to ubiquitin-like modifiers, such as LC3/Atg8, and act as molecular regulators of autophagy.
Ivan's recent awards include the German Cancer Prize 2010, ERC Advanced grant 2010, the Binder Innovation Prize of the German Society for Cell Biology (2006) and the American Association for Cancer Research Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research in 2006.