Günther Jung

Günther Jung (2019)

Günther Jung (born 2 September 1937 in Tübingen) is a German chemist. He was full professor for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen from 1973 to 2002.

Career[]

Jung studied chemistry at the University of Tübingen and after his diploma thesis in 1965 he received his PhD in 1967. From 1967 to 1968 he was assistant professor at the University of Houston in Texas (USA). In 1971 he was granted permission to teach organic chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, where he held a permanent university professorship from 1973 to 2002. His successor in the department of organic chemistry is Stephanie Grond.

Jung has been in the advisory committee of eight scientific journals and on the boards of several institutions. He was also research consultant in the pharmaceutical industry and organized many international symposia and workshops. Until 1996 he was also director of the biochemistry department at the Research Institute of Natural and Medicinal Sciences and of the Steinbeis-Transfer-Center Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of Tübingen.^[1]

Jung was a cofounder of the European Peptide Society (EPS) and the European Society of Combinatorial Sciences (ESCS). Together with post-docs of his group he founded two biotech companies in Tübingen. EMC microcollections with Karl-Heinz Wiesmüller as the director with focus on the development of research tools, and peptides for the lead structure search and lipopeptide vaccines. Lipopeptide vaccines have been presented for the first time in 1985 followed by various in vivo applications which include a protective peptide vaccine against foot-and-mouth disease and the first demonstration of a virus-specific killer cell (CTL) response by a lipopeptide (1989).

Jung's former PhD students Ingmar Hoerr and Florian von der Mülbe founded the biopharmaceutical company CureVac. In his pioneering PhD thesis Ingmar Hoerr was the first to develop an RNA vaccine for the induction of specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) and antibodies.^[2] This work is the scientific background of different clinical trials of CureVac's messenger RNA as vaccines in oncology and against viral infections.^[3]

Research[]

More than 120 scientists performed their experimental PhD thesis in the laboratories of Jung.^[4]

His research was focused on the following areas: structure elucidation and synthesis of natural products, synthetic potential-dependent ion channels in lipid membranes, 3D-structure and biosynthesis of microbial metabolites, automated multiple parallel synthesis of peptides and organic compounds, structure-activity relationships of peptide hormones, biosensor developments, combinatorial chemistry for lead structure search, peptide libraries, complete B- and T-cell epitope mapping of viral proteins, immunobiochemistry.

The sequence motifs of MHC-bound natural peptide libraries (major histocompatibility complex) has been determined for the first time by Jung's PhD student in cooperation with the cell-biological group of Hans-Georg Rammensee.^[5] The elaborated analytical protocols are essential for the elucidation of the molecular interactions in cellular immunity and for the development of peptide-based immunotherapies.

Numerous novel antibiotics with high structural variety and origin have been elucidated by Jung's group. The biosynthetic intermediates of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides of several lantibiotics have been analyzed and the corresponding enzymes have been characterized. For the first time these findings established the complete sequential steps for the biosynthesis of several lantibiotics in cooperation with microbiologists. The biosynthesis of vancomycin-type and other peptide antibiotics is now a major topic of the research group of .

Awards[]

In 1989, he was awarded the Max-Bergmann Medallion for his scientific work in the field of Lantibiotics,^[6] and in 1992 he received the Leonidas Zervas Award of the European Peptide Society for distinguished contributions in the field of peptide chemistry.^[7] He received the Akabori Memorial Award 2000 form the Japanese Peptide Society^[8] and the ESCS-Award 2003 of the European Society of Combinatorial Sciences.

Scientific Work and Publications (selection)[]

Jung is author and co-author of more than 900 scientific publications, which include about 700 original experimental articles and several books.^[9]

Books[]

• E. Breitmaier, G. Jung: Organische Chemie (7th edition). Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart. 2012. ISBN 978-3-135-41507-9, e-book: eISBN (PDF) 978-3-13-159987-2.
• G. Jung (ed.): Combinatorial Chemistry. Synthesis, Analysis, Screening. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. 1999. ISBN 3-527-29869-X.
• G. Jung (ed.): Combinatorial Peptide and Nonpeptide Libraries, A Handbook. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. 1996. ISBN 3-527-29380-9.
• G. Jung, H.-G. Sahl (eds.): Nisin and Novel Lantibiotics, Escom, Leiden. 1991.

Publications in Journals[]

• S. Günther, A. Schlundt, J. Sticht, Y. Roske, U. Heinemann, K.-H. Wiesmüller, G. Jung, K. Falk, O. Rötzschke, and C.Freund: Bidirectional Binding of Invariant Chain Peptides to an MHC Class II Molecule. In: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107, 2010, S. 22219–22224.
• K. Dickhaut, S. Hoepner, J. Eckhard, K.-H. Wiesmüller, L. Schindler, G. Jung, K. Falk, and O. Rötzschke: Enhancement of Tumor-Specific Immune Responses In Vivo by "MHC-Loading-Enhancer" (MLE). In: PLoS 4, 2009, S. 1–9.
• B. Thern, J. Rudolph, and G. Jung: First Total Synthesis of the Nematicidal Cyclododecapeptide Omphalotin A by Using Racemization-free Triphosgene-Mediated Couplings in the Solid Phase. In: Angew. Chem. 114, S. 2002, 2401–2403; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 41, 2002, S. 2307–2309.
• J. Rademann, and G. Jung: Integrating Combinatorial Synthesis and Bioassays. In: Science 287, 2000, S. 1947–1948.
• I.Hoerr, R.Obst, H.-G. Rammensee, and G.Jung:In vivo application of RNA leads to the induction of specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes and antibodies. In: Eur.J.Immunol, 30, 2000, S. 1–7.
• T. Kupke, C. Kempter, G. Jung, and F. Götz: Oxidative Decarboxylation of Peptides Catalyzed by Flavoprotein Epi D: Determination of Substrate Specificity Using Peptide Libraries and neutral Loss Mass Spectrometry. In: Biol. Chem. 270, 1995, S. 11282–11289.
• A. Bayer, S. Freund, G. Nicholson and G. Jung: Posttranslational Backbone Modification in the Ribosomal Biosynthesis of the Glycine–Rich Antibiotic Microcin B17. In: Angew. Chem. 105, 1993, S. 1410–1413; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl.32, 1993, S. 1336–1339.
• O. Rötzschke, K Falk, S. Stevanovic, B. Grahovac, M. J. Soloski, G. Jung, and H.-G. Rammensee: Qa-2 Molecules are Peptide Receptors of Higher Stringency than Ordinary Class II Molecules. In: Nature, 361, 1993, S. 642–644.
• K. Falk, O. Rötzschke, S. Stevanovic, and G. Jung, H.-G. Rammensee: Allele-Speciflc Motifs Revealed by Sequencing of Self-Peptides Eluted from MHC-Molecules. In: Nature, 351, 1991, S. 290–296.
• O. Rötzschke, K. Falk, K. Deres, H. Schild, M. Noda, J. Metzger, G. Jung, and H.-G. Rammensee: Isolation and Analysis of Naturally Processed Viral Peptides as Recognized by Cytotoxic T Cells. In: Nature, 348, 1990, S. 252–254.
• K.-H. Wiesmüller, G. Jung, and G. Hess: Novel Low-Molecular-Weight Synthetic Vaccine against Foot-and Mouth Disease containing a Potent B-Cell and Macrophage Avtivator. In: Vaccine 7, 1989, S. 29–33.
• K. Deres, H.-J. Schild, K.-H. Wiesmüller, G. Jung, and H.-G. Rammensee: In vivo Priming of Virus Specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte with Synthetic Lipopeptide Vaccine. In: Nature, 342,1989, S. 561–564.
• N. Schnell, K-D- Entian, U. Schneider, F. Götz, H. Zähner, R. Kellner, and G. Jung: Prepeptide Sequence of Epidermin, a Ribosomally Synthesized Polypeptide Antibiotic Containing four Sulphide-Rings. In: Nature, 333, 1988, S. 276–278.
• G. Jung, K.-H. Wiesmüller, G. Becker, H.-J. Bühring, and W.G. Bessler: Increased Production of Specific Antibodies by Presentation of the Antigen Determinants with Covalently Lipopeptide Mitogens. In: Angew. Chem. 97, 1985, S. 883–885; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 24, 1885, S. 872–873.

References[]

External links[]

• Literature by and about Günther Jung in the German National Library catalogue
• Internet Presence of Prof. em. Günther Jung at the Universität of Tübingen