Nikolaus Pfanner studied medicine in Munich and received his training in biochemistry and molecular cell biology in the laboratories of Professor Walter Neupert (Munich) and Professor James E. Rothman (Princeton). Since 1992 he has been Professor and Chair of the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Freiburg, Germany. He studies protein sorting in cells and focuses on the biogenesis and assembly of mitochondria. He identified several novel pathways and machineries for the import of proteins into mitochondria. Nikolaus Pfanner was President of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the Max Planck Research Award, the Stein & Moore Award, the Order of Merit of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz), the Schleiden Medal, and the Otto Warburg Medal.
