Professor Bernhard Horsthemke, PhD,
Bernhard is Professor and Chair of Human Genetics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. After graduating from the Technical University of Westberlin in 1982 he performed postdoctorial studies in biochemistry and molecular human genetics.
From 1984 and 1986 he was an EMBO fellow with Professor R. Williamson at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School London. In 1986 he set up a Molecular Genetics Lab at the Institute of Human Genetics in Essen, Germany. Since 2001 he is director of this Institute. In 2004 he received the Award of the European Society of Human Genetics and in 2005 he was elected into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. His main research interest is the role of epigenetic variation in human disease. His group pioneered the study of DNA methylation in Prader-Willi syndrome and has made major contributions to the analysis of imprinting defects.
