Helmut Sies

Professor of biochemistry
Heinrich Heine Universitat
Dusseldorf, Germany

How long have you been an ASBMB member?
Since 1988.

What do you study?
Oxidative stress, oxidants and antioxidants, redox signaling, micronutrients (carotenoids, polyphenols, selenium), nutritional biochemistry, hepatic metabolism, vascular responses, and cell-cell communication.

What are some hot research areas in your country?
Structural biology, systems biology, stem cell research, neurobiology, hepatology and cardiovascular biology.

Where do you see research going in your country in 5 to 10 years?
I predict more disparity between large, high-level research clusters at universities (for example, the Excellence Initiative) and nonuniversity organizations (such as the Leibniz, Helmholtz and Fraunhofer institutes) on one hand and the normal university research chairs on the other.

As for research topics, the big questions tackled worldwide will also be tackled in Germany.
The research atmosphere is good (although one can always complain on a high level).

Are there any barriers to collaboration?
Fortunately not.

Where do you get most of your funding?
From the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (the German equivalent of the National Institutes of Health) and also the National Foundation for Cancer Research in Bethesda, Md.

How do you think research in your country differs most from research in the United States?
There is no fundamental difference in my view. Competitive grants are the mainstay. My feeling is that cooperation among German scientists themselves could be encouraged more, but the core grants at local universities (Sonderforschungsbereich) do a good job at this.

Did you do any of your training abroad?
During my postdoctoral research time at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University at Munich I had the privilege to spend research visits with Britton Chance at the Johnson Research Foundation in Philadelphia.