Prof. Dr. Thomas Benzing

Department IV of Medicine

Medical Faculty, University of Cologne

Phone: 0221-478-4480, Fax: 0221-478-5959

Honors & Awards (Selection)

1998                     Research scholarship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

2003                     Heisenberg scholarship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

2004                     Dr. Adalbert Buding Research Award of the German Society of Hypertension

2005                     Elected Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology (FASN)

2006                     Franz-Volhard-Award of the German Society of Nephrology

2006                     Young Investigator Award of the American Society of Nephrology

2008                     Elected member of the Ludwig-Heilmeyer Society

2008                     Ernst-Jung Award in Medicine

2010                     Elected member of the German National Academy of Science Leopoldina

Selected Publications

• Huber TB, Schermer B, Müller RU, Höhne M, Bartram M, Calixto A, Hagmann H, Reinhardt C, Koos F, Kunzelmann K, Shirokova E, Krautwurst D, Harteneck C, Simons M, Pavenstädt H, Kerjaschki D, Thiele C, Walz G, Chalfie M, Benzing T.(2006). Podocin and MEC-2 bind cholesterol to regulate the activity of associated ion channels. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103, 17079-17086.

• Schermer B, Ghenoiu C, Bartram M, Müller RU, Kotsis F, Höhne M, Kühn W, Rapka M, Nitschke R, Zentgraf H, Fliegauf M, Omran H, Walz G, Benzing T.(2006) The Von-Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor protein interacts with polarity proteins and controls ciliogenesis. J Cell Biol 175, 547-554.

• Schermer B, Höpker K, Omran H, Fliegauf M, Köttgen M, Zschiedrich S, Huber TB, Hackl M, Ghenoiu C, Kramer-Zucker A, Zentgraf H, Blaukat A, Walz G, Benzing T.(2005). Phosphorylation by casein kinase 2 induces PACS-1 binding of nephrocystin and targeting to cilia. EMBO J 24, 4415-4424.

• Huber TB, Schmidts M, Gerke P, Schermer B, Zahn A, Hartleben B, Sellin L, Walz G, Benzing T.(2003). The carboxy terminus of Neph family members binds to the PDZ domain protein Zonula occludens-1. J Biol Chem 278, 13417-13421.

• Huber TB, Hartleben B, Kim J, Schmidts M, Schermer B, Keil A, Egger L, Lecha R, Borner C, Pavenstädt H, Shaw, A., Walz, G., Benzing, T. (2003). Nephrin and CD2AP associate with phosphoinositide 3-OH kinase and stimulate AKT-dependent signaling. Mol Cell Biol 23, 4917-4928.