Burghardt Wittig

Burghardt Wittig (born 1947 in Celle, Germany) is the chairman of MolBio2Math and a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Freie Universitaet Berlin in Berlin (FUB), Germany. His research focuses on the areas of gene regulation, DNA structures induced by torsional strain, chromatin structure, G-protein-mediated signal transduction, as well as therapeutic applications of genetic research and DNA-based vaccines. His research has been published in numerous leading scientific journals, including Cell, Nature, PNAS, and Science.

Early life Wittig was born in Celle, Germany, where he attended the classical "Gymnasium Ernestinum". He graduated by the German Abitur in fall 1966, followed by two years of service in the German military.

In 1987, Freie Universitaet Berlin awarded Wittig an extraordinary professorship. He continued to work as a visiting professor at Alexander Rich's lab until 1989, when he became a Schering professor (S-C4, full tenure) at Freie Universitaet Berlin. In 1988, he became the fully tenured founding chair and department head of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics at Freie Universitaet's Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. After a change of the relevant laws of the state of Berlin merged parts of Freie Universitaet and Humboldt Universitaet into the Charité – Universitaetsmedizin, Wittig became director of its newly founded Institute of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics.

Guided by the goal of facilitating the independent transition from basic research into clinical DNA-based medicines, Wittig founded Mologen AG in 1998. The firm had their IPO at the German stock exchange in the same year. He served as Mologen AG's CEO until 2007, while continuing to work as a full professor in a private-public-partnership.

In 2010, Wittig's institute returned to Freie Universitaet Berlin as a non-profit foundation with Freie Universitaet as the trustee. He served as the chairman of this newly created Foundation Institute of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics until 2017.

In late 2019, Wittig founded MolBio2Math, a non-profit foundation under the trusteeship of the Gentechnologiestiftung - Dr. Georg und Ingeburg Scheel Stiftung, of which he is currently the chairman

Selected publications

Allfrey VG, Arnott S, Bradbury EM, Bayev A, Chambon P, Crick FHC, Felsenfeld G, Mirzabekov AT, Noll M, Stern H, van Holde KE, Wittig B, Zachau HG, and Zweidler A (1976) "The Structure of Chromatin" in: Organization and expression of chromosomes: Dahlem Konferenzen Life Sciences Research Report, 4; Allfrey AG, Bautz EKF, McCarthy BJ, Schimke RT, Tissieres A (Eds.) pp. 19–27; / , Abakon Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin.

Schmidt M, Schroff M, Wittig B (2020) "Harnessing the Therapeutic Potential of Dendritic Cells" in: Second Generation Cell and Gene-based Therapies, pp. 183–202; Alain A. Vertès, Devyn M. Smith, Nasib Qureshi, Nathan J. Dowden (Eds.) , Academic Press, London