The Max Delbrück Center bids farewell to Thomas Sommer
On December 6, 2024, the Max Delbrück Center bid farewell to a long-time friend who has significantly influenced the institution: Professor Thomas Sommer. He joined the center as a junior group leader in the early 1990s — and remained for 30 years. He served as an ombudsman for PhD candidates multiple times and twice took on the role of interim head of the Max Delbrück Center, most recently from 2019 to 2022. As a manager and networker, he represented the center in various committees. Now, he is starting a new chapter in his career. Sommer has become the managing director of the Institute for Biomedical Translation (IBT) Lower Saxony in Hanover, which supports biomedical startups in the region.
n conversation with Walter Birchmeier, former Scientific Director of the Max Delbrück Center. Thomas Sommer was his deputy.
When Thomas Sommer returned to Berlin, the Max Delbrück Center was only a few months old. During this founding phase, Detlev Ganten was instrumental in shaping the center.
At the symposium, Ivan Đikić not only gave a scientific talk – he also shared his memories of working with Thomas Sommer.
The leadership style of Thomas Sommer is wise, said Christopher Baum, Chairman of the Board of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) – characterized by pragmatism, excellent analytical skills, a clear scientific vision and humour.
“Work should also be fun,” Thomas Sommer once said to Heike Wolke, the former Administrative Director of the Max Delbrück Center. And they always found opportunities to laugh together despite all the challenges. Heike Graßmann agreed.
Claus Scheidereit fondly remembered driving through Berlin together - passing over 140 traffic lights and consequently having plenty of time to talk and make plans, for example for German-Israeli exchanges. He said that Sommer had set standards in biochemistry and had always been the glue between the PIs and various directors.
Maike Sander extended her heartfelt gratitude on behalf of everyone.
Basic research and application are inseparable, Sommer says, as all therapies originate from basic research. He promoted this philosophy in his roles at the Max Delbrück Center, helping to create the structures that allow researchers to both understand the fundamentals of life and develop new therapeutic approaches.
A symposium on the cell’s recycling system
His research career has been dedicated to studying the ubiquitin-proteasome system, also known as the cell's recycling system. Ubiquitin acts as a tag, marking proteins that have accumulated defects for various reasons, which render them nonfunctional or even harmful, and prepares them for disposal. The cell breaks down the marked proteins and reuses their components to create new ones.
The recycling system was the focus of the symposium titled "Targeted proteolysis: From basic discovery to clinical application," featuring keynote lectures by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Professor Aaron Ciechanover from the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and Professor Fleur M. Ferguson from the University of California, San Diego. At the end of a day full of scientific highlights and reminiscences of the collaboration, there was a festive farewell – and all guests were in agreement: We will miss him very much!
Further information
- Farewell-Symposium at Max Delbrück Center
- Portrait of Thomas Sommer
- Between Buch and Haifa
- IBT Lower Saxony
Photo for download
Portrait of Thomas Sommer. Credit: Pablo Castagnola, Max Delbrück Center
Contact
Jutta Kramm
Head, Communications
Max Delbrück Center
+49 30 9406-2140
jutta.kramm@mdc-berlin.de oder presse@mdc-berlin.de
- Max Delbrück Center
The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (Max Delbrück Center) is one of the world’s leading biomedical research institutions. Max Delbrück, a Berlin native, was a Nobel laureate and one of the founders of molecular biology. At the locations in Berlin-Buch and Mitte, researchers from some 70 countries study human biology – investigating the foundations of life from its most elementary building blocks to systems-wide mechanisms. By understanding what regulates or disrupts the dynamic equilibrium of a cell, an organ, or the entire body, we can prevent diseases, diagnose them earlier, and stop their progression with tailored therapies. Patients should be able to benefit as soon as possible from basic research discoveries. This is why the Max Delbrück Center supports spin-off creation and participates in collaborative networks. It works in close partnership with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in the jointly-run Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charité, and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK). Founded in 1992, the Max Delbrück Center today employs 1,800 people and is 90 percent funded by the German federal government and 10 percent by the State of Berlin.
