Prof. Dr. Matthias Peter

Matthias Peter has been Full Professor of Biochemistry at the ETH Zurich since 2002. He is head of several interdisciplinary projects in the fields of cell proliferation and signal transduction.

Prof. Peter was born on September 14, 1962 in Winterthur, Switzerland and studied biochemistry at the ETH Zurich. He received his doctorate under the supervision of Professor Erich Nigg at the Swiss National Cancer Institute (ISREC) in Lausanne. After five years of post-doctoral research at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) with Professor Ira Herskowitz, he received a Career Development Award (START) of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), and was appointed Assistant Professor at ISREC/University of Lausanne. In 1998, Matthias Peter received an award from the Horten Foundation, and was elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2002. He is also a member of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Council for Science and Technology (SWTR).

His research centers on mechanisms that regulate cell proliferation, cell polarity and cell growth. The group of Prof. Peter is currently working on the following questions:


1) how are major cell cycle transitions and signaling pathways regulated by ubiquitin-dependent degradation


2) how is cell polarity established and maintained

This research uses modern methods of genetics, advanced light microscopy, biochemistry and molecular biology. The Peter group exploits the model systems S. cerevisiae and C. elegans, and mammalian tissue culture cells.