Rüdiger Hell

Rüdiger Hell (born June 3, 1959) is a German plant biologist and distinguished professor at the Center for Organismal Studies (COS) at Heidelberg University, Germany.

Education and career Hell studied biology at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and obtained his doctorate in plant biology from the University of Cologne in 1989 under the supervision of . He performed a postdoctoral fellowship in the research group of in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, from 1990 to 1993. Subsequently, Hell was appointed as a senior researcher (C1) in the Department of Plant Physiology at the Ruhr University Bochum in Bochum, Germany. to 2024 and is also active as a member of the German Society for Plant Sciences.

Research In his research, Hell integrates biochemistry, cell biology and molecular genetics to answer physiological and organismal questions towards understanding of the adjustment growth of plants in different environments.

Hell's research focuses on the role of metabolism for driving growth in relation to developmental programs and changing environments. He developed the regulation of the metabolism of sulfur into a versatile tool to study plant nutrient sensing, growth control in general and abiotic stress responses. He discovered that the synthesis of the amino acid cysteine forms a metabolic hub for integration of resource availability in the soil (i.e. sulfate) and changing demand for energy and protein translation in response to photosynthesis and stresses, in particular water deficit and heavy metal resistance. He promoted research on the role of protein degradation that is determined by N-terminal protein modifications in the context of proteome stability during environmental stress.

Selected publications Hell, R., Mendel, RR., eds. (2010). "Cell biology of metals and nutrients". Plant cell monographs. Heidelberg; New York: Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-10612-5. Takahashi, H., Kopriva, S., Giordano, M., Saito, S., Hell, R. (2011). "Sulfur Assimilation in Photosynthetic Organisms: Molecular Functions and Regulations of Transporters and Assimilatory Enzymes". Annual Review of Plant Biology. 62: 157–184. Linster, E., Stephan, I., Bienvenut, W.V., Maple-Grødem, J., Myklebust, L.M., Huber, M., Reichelt, M., Sticht, C., Møller, S.G., Meinnel, T., Arnesen, T., Giglione, C., Hell, R., Wirtz, M. (2015). "Proteome imprinting by N-terminal acetylation is a vital hormone-regulated switch during drought stress". Nature Communications. 6. Forieri, I., Sticht, C., Reichelt, M., Gretz, N., Hawkesford, M.J., Malagoli, M., Wirtz, M., Hell, R. (2017). "Systems analysis of metabolism and the transcriptome in Arabidopsis thaliana roots reveals differential co-regulation upon iron, sulfur and potassium deficiency". Plant, Cell & Environment. 40: 95–107. Sun, SK., Xu, X., Tang, Z., Hell, R. et al (2021). "A molecular switch in sulfur metabolism to reduce arsenic and enrich selenium in rice grain". Nature Communications. 12.