Matuschewski max planck biography
- Kai MATUSCHEWSKI, Professor | Cited by 10305 | of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin (HU Berlin) | Read 287 publications | Contact Kai MATUSCHEWSKI.
- Kai Matuschewski has been head of the Department of Parasitology at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology on the Charité Campus in.
- The Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology was founded in 1992, making it one of the first Max Planck Institutes in the former GDR.
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Biting back at malaria
Max Planck researchers are searching for vulnerabilities in the life cycle of the malaria parasite
Many parasites have complex life cycles. They change hosts over the course of their lives and completely alter their way of life in the process. The malaria pathogen Plasmodium falciparum also lives in different organisms: humans and mosquitoes. Scientist Kai Matuschewski from the Berlin-based Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology is therefore searching for a weakness in the life cycle of the pathogen that could be used to prevent it from spreading.
Text: Catarina Pietschmann
The humidity is tropical, the temperature is a constant 28 degrees, and there’s an abundant supply of fresh water, as well as Brekkies cat food to eat - and there are droves of mosquitoes of the same age. Even the sunrise and sunset are simulated - perfect conditions for taking things easy or swimming a few leisurely laps. The lab is nothing short of a luxury spa for mosquito larvae! Scientist Kai Matuschewski laughs: "Yes, we really pamper them."
Matuschewski’s col
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Kai Matuschewski Edit Profile
research scientist
Kai Matuschewski, German research scientist. Achievements include research in genetics of the malaria parasite. Recipient prize, German Society Tropical Medicine & International Health, 2005, Eva and Hans Grohe award, 2009, prize, Joachim Siebeneicher Foundation, 2005, award, Chica & Heinz Schaller Foundation, Germany, 2006; fellowship, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, 1988-1993.
Background
Matuschewski, Kai was born on March 2, 1966 in Berlin. Son of Uwe H.J. and Barbara B. Matuschewski.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, Heidelberg University, Germany, 1998.
Career
Postdoctoral scientist New York University School Medicine, Manhattan, New York, 1998—2001. Junior group leader Heidelberg University School Medicine, 2001—2008, professor, 2008—2009. Group leader Max Planck Institute Infection Biology, Berlin, since 2009.
Achievements
Kai Matuschewski has been listed as a notable research scientist by Marquis Who's Who.
Connections •
Talk: Scientific cooperation between Germany and Africa
DW:
We're seeing that TB is a problem again. But I thought that there was already a vaccine against it.
Kai Matuschewski:
Well, there is a vaccine. It's 90 years old. It's semi- or partly efficient vaccine, and that was under control until HIV came up and now with the co-infection and this dramatic expansion of TB we just need new tools. It's time to develop a new vaccine 90 years later.
Why isn't the vaccine that's already there not working?
It's an old vaccine that's OK, that gives partial immunity for a couple of years, but it's not effective in adults - we know that - we've known that for decades - and what we need is a better vaccine.
Now you yourself have been working over in eastern Africa doing research there. Can you tell us a little more about your own work?
Yes, we're interested in malaria, which is another big killer, an infectious disease killing about a million children every year in sub-Saharan Africa. Every minute a child dies. It's a pathogen that is very complex, very tricky to
Talk: Scientific cooperation between Germany and Africa
DW:
We're seeing that TB is a problem again. But I thought that there was already a vaccine against it.
Kai Matuschewski:
Well, there is a vaccine. It's 90 years old. It's semi- or partly efficient vaccine, and that was under control until HIV came up and now with the co-infection and this dramatic expansion of TB we just need new tools. It's time to develop a new vaccine 90 years later.
Why isn't the vaccine that's already there not working?
It's an old vaccine that's OK, that gives partial immunity for a couple of years, but it's not effective in adults - we know that - we've known that for decades - and what we need is a better vaccine.
Now you yourself have been working over in eastern Africa doing research there. Can you tell us a little more about your own work?
Yes, we're interested in malaria, which is another big killer, an infectious disease killing about a million children every year in sub-Saharan Africa. Every minute a child dies. It's a pathogen that is very complex, very tricky to
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