Roderich D. Süssmuth (born March 6, 1971[1] in Tübingen) is a German chemist and biochemist.

Roderich D. Süssmuth
Süssmuth in 2020
Born (1971-03-06) March 6, 1971 (age 55)
Alma materEberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Scientific career
InstitutionsTU Berlin

Life

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Roderich Süssmuth studied chemistry and biochemistry at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen from 1990 to 1996. In 1999, he received his doctorate under Günther Jung in Tübingen with a dissertation entitled Isolation, structural elucidation, and synthesis of microbial metabolites from Amycolatopsis mediterranei, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Streptomyces lividans.[1]

During a postdoctoral stay at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, United States, from 2000 to 2001, he worked with Richard A. Lerner and Carlos F. Barbas on catalytic antibodies and organocatalysis. As an Emmy Noether Research Fellow (DFG) from 2001 to 2004, he completed his habilitation in chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Tübingen.[citation needed]

In 2004, he was appointed Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry at TU Berlin. In 2008, he was appointed to the Rudolf Wiechert Professorship of Biological Chemistry at TU Berlin.[2]

In 2020, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)[citation needed] and an honorary member of the Israel Chemical Society.[citation needed]

In 2022, he was admitted to the Confraternity of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome.[citation needed]

Work

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During his career, Roderich Süssmuth worked in the field of peptide synthesis, addressing current research questions from both a chemical perspective (natural product synthesis) and a biological perspective, particularly with regard to new classes of active compounds with activity against fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Compounds derived from plant-pathogenic bacteria such as Xanthomonas albilineans play an important role, including albicidin, which is an inhibitor of plant gyrase and also a highly potent antibacterial agent.[3]

He elucidated the structure of the antibacterial compound albicidin, investigated its biosynthesis, developed the total synthesis of the peptide, and studied a range of bacterial resistance factors, mostly from plant-associated bacteria.[4] Another example is the recent elucidation of a lipopeptide from Burkholderia sp., which exhibits pronounced activity against plant-pathogenic fungi.[5] Another area of research involves fungal toxins of the death cap mushroom, phalloidin[6] and amanitin, for which total syntheses were developed and, with the ansamer concept, a novel non-classical atropisomerism was described.

Awards

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  • 2000: Feodor Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
  • 2002: Emmy Noether Fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
  • 2002: Friedrich Weygand Prize of the Max Bergmann Circle e.V.
  • 2003: Young Scientist Award for Natural Product Research of DECHEMA e.V.
  • 2003: Eli Lilly Lecture Award
  • 2006: Lecturer Fellowship from the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI)
  • 2010: Sigma Aldrich Lecture, Lunteren, Netherlands
  • 2013: Visiting Professorship at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
  • 2014: Van Arkel Chair at Leiden University, Netherlands
  • 2020: Recipient of the Max Bergmann Medal for outstanding achievements in the field of peptide natural products[7]

Select publications

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References

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  1. 1 2 "Roderich D. Süssmuth". Autoren-Profil. Angewandte Chemie (in German). 122 (30): 5154–5154. July 12, 2010. doi:10.1002/ange.201002150. ISSN 0044-8249.
  2. Süssmuth, Roderich D.; Mainz, Andi (March 27, 2017). "Nicht‐ribosomale Peptidsynthese – Prinzipien und Perspektiven". Angewandte Chemie. 129 (14): 3824–3878. doi:10.1002/ange.201609079.
  3. Cociancich, Stéphane; Pesic, Alexander; Petras, Daniel; Uhlmann, Stefanie; Kretz, Julian; Schubert, Vivien; et al. (January 19, 2015). "The gyrase inhibitor albicidin consists of p-aminobenzoic acids and cyanoalanine". Nature Chemical Biology. pp. 195–197. doi:10.1038/nchembio.1734. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
  4. Transcription activation by the resistance protein AlbA as a tool to evaluate derivatives of the antibiotic albicidin. Vol. 14. May 17, 2023. pp. 5069–5078. doi:10.1039/D3SC00955F. ISSN 2041-6539.
  5. Zhong, Lei; Mühlenweg, Agnes; Hong, Dou; Yammine, Sarah; Poch, Annette; Xu, Dingchang; et al. (June 18, 2025). "The Intricate Nonribosomal Assembly of a Potent Antifungal Lipopeptide from the Burkholderia cepacia Complex". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 147 (24): 20725–20734. doi:10.1021/jacs.5c04167. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 12186527. PMID 40454803.
  6. Yao, Guiyang; Joswig, Jan‐Oliver; Keller, Bettina G.; Süssmuth, Roderich D. (June 18, 2019). "Total Synthesis of the Death Cap Toxin Phalloidin: Atropoisomer Selectivity Explained by Molecular‐Dynamics Simulations". Chemistry – A European Journal. 25 (34): 8030–8034. doi:10.1002/chem.201901888. ISSN 0947-6539.
  7. "Max-Bergmann-Medaille". Max Bergmann Kreis e.V. (in German). Archived from the original on April 29, 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
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