DESY leading scientist Holger Sondermann has taken over as the new Scientific Director of the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) for the coming two years. The CSSB, located on the DESY campus in Hamburg, is one of the campus’ core cooperative institutes involving DESY and eight other universities and research centres. On 1 December 2023, the CSSB Council confirmed the CSSB Directorate’s nomination of Sondermann.

Sondermann joined CSSB in 2020 from Cornell University in the United States. As head of the “Molecular and Structural Microbiology” research group at CSSB, Sondermann investigates the molecular mechanisms of how biofilms develop and how they could be eliminated. In addition, Sondermann is an editorial board member of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Bacteriology, and the journal PLoS Pathogens. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

“Infectious diseases remain one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality world-wide with antimicrobial resistance bacteria predicted to cause up to 10 million deaths annually by 2050. By working together to develop a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of individual pathogens, scientists at CSSB are helping to combat infectious diseases more effectively,” explains Sondermann. “I am excited to be the new Scientific Director and help CSSB grow both strategically and scientifically.”

Sondermann takes over from Kay Grünewald (Leibniz Institute of Virology, Universität Hamburg) who has served as CSSB’s Scientific Director for the past two years and will continue to support CSSB as “out-going” Deputy Director. The management team will be completed by the new “in-coming” Deputy Director Charlotte Uetrecht (Leibniz Institute of Virology, Uni Siegen, DESY).

After serving for thirteen years as both Deputy Director and Scientific Director, Chris Meier left the CSSB management team at the end of 2023. “In the past thirteen years, CSSB has gone from a joint concept paper to a thriving research centre,” states Meier “Helping to found and develop CSSB has been an incredible journey and I am proud of everything we have accomplished so far.” Meier will continue to be involved in CSSB as an associate member.

“The CSSB Directorate would like to thank Chris Meier for his dedication to CSSB over the last thirteen years,” states Grünewald. “His hard work and commitment have helped establish CSSB as a collaborative and innovative center at the forefront of molecular infection research.”