Ralf Reski

Ralf Reski is a German Professor of Plant Biotechnology and former Dean of the Faculty of Biology of the University of Freiburg. He is Fellow of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies

Biography
Ralf Reski studied Biology, Chemistry and the Theory and Practice of Education at the Universities of Giessen and Hamburg. He was awarded his doctorate in Genetics in 1990 at the University of Hamburg and received his postdoctoral lecture qualification in Botany in 1994. From 1996 until 1999 he was a Heisenberg-Fellow of the German Research Foundation. He was later appointed Full Professor at the University of Freiburg and became Head of the newly established Department of Plant Biotechnology. In 2004 he became a member of the International Moss Genome Consortium. He is Principal Investigator (PI) of the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine (SGBM) and the Centre for Biological Signalling Studies (bioss), both funded within the German Universities Excellence Initiative. Further, Reski is PI in the Freiburg Initiative for Systems Biology (FRISYS). funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Since 2010 Reski coordinates a TEMPUS-project to improve teaching in "environmental management and ecology" at the Russian Universities in Altai, Novosibirsk, Omsk and Tyumen.

Research


Ralf Reski's main area of research deals with genetics, proteins, metabolism and particularities in the cell development of moss plants, using the technique of homologous recombination for creating knockout mosses by gene targeting in an reverse genetics approach. With over 150 scientific publications to date he has contributed towards mosses becoming a model plant in biological research. In December 2007 the complete genome of the moss Physcomitrella patens was deciphered. This research was financed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the German National Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG). In 2010 he established the International Moss Stock Center (IMSC) which stores and freely distributes moss strains, transgenics and ecotypes. The IMSC accession numbers can be used in scientific publications to ensure availability of the new materials.

Reski and his co-workers have identified hitherto unknown genes and their functions for agriculture and forestry. The cultivation of moss cells and their use in pharmaceutical industry is also a main focal point of his research. This field of biotechnology is often referred to as "Molecular Farming".

In 1998 Reski and coworkers used a knockout moss for the deletion of the ftsZ gene and thus identified the first gene essential in the division of an organelle in any eukaryote.

In 2000 Ralf Reski coined the term "plastoskeleton", analogous to the term "cytoskeleton" and presented a new concept in cell biology of how chloroplasts, the green cell organelles of plants change shape and divide

In 2010 Reski and colleagues discovered a new mechanism of gene regulation; the epigenetic gene silencing by microRNAs.

In 1999 the chemical company BASF invested more than 30 Mio. DM in a four year cooperation project with Reski to identify new genes which will be able to make crop plants for example more resistant to drought, cold and attack by pests. Also plants with improved nutrional value (vitamins or polyunsaturated fatty acids) have been in the research focus of their collaboration. In 1999 Ralf Reski and colleagues founded greenovation Biotech GmbH in Freiburg, a biotechnology company which has developed a moss bioreactor for the production of pharmaceuticals, thereby presenting a safe and inexpensive alternative to other production systems in the field of molecular farming.

Editorial board member of scientific journals

 * 2002 - to date Plant Cell Reports
 * 2004 - 2005   Plant Biology (Guest-Editor)
 * 2008 - to date Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology
 * 2010 - to date Biology International

News articles

 * Ralf Reski - a risk taker who enjoys his work
 * "Moss bioreactors do not smell" - Interview with Professor Ralf Reski
 * BASF and Freiburg University to collaborate on plant biotechnology
 * The first decoded moss genome: From all-conquering country dweller to producer of medicines
 * Eager for a more open debate
 * Freiburg - a strong bioformatics location
 * The moss Physcomitrella patens gives insights into RNA interference in plants
 * Green gene technology: research in Baden-Württemberg
 * Targeted gene replacement in barley
 * An inconspicuous relative
 * Protein communicates information about stress
 * The conquest of land by plants
 * Medicine from Moss: Bioreactor Technique May Offer Hope to People With Age-Related Blindness

Ralf Reski