Biochemistry Seminar - Christian Schlieker (YSM)

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Christian Schlieker studies the cellular and molecular basis of movement disorders, with a research focus on nuclear compartmentalization and biomolecular condensates. He studied biology at the University of Bonn in Germany and the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, before earning his PhD in the laboratory of Bernd Bukau at the Center for Molecular Biology in Heidelberg. There, he used biochemical and biophysical approaches to uncover how Clp/HSP100 AAA+ ATPases counteract the toxic buildup of misfolded proteins.

He continued his training as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow with Hidde Ploegh at Harvard Medical School and the Whitehead Institute/MIT, exploring the ubiquitin-proteasome system and discovering a role for a ubiquitin-like modifier in RNA biology.

Dr. Schlieker is Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, which he joined in 2009. He also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Cell Biology. His honors include an NIH Director's New Innovator Award. He serves on the scientific advisory board of the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation and has previously served on review panels for NIH, the Department of Defense, and the German Excellence Initiative, among others. At Yale, he also serves on the Advisory Board of the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery. (7/2026)