Markus Conrad

Marcus Conrad is the Research Director of the Institute of Metabolism and Cell Death at Helmholtz Munich and Chair of Translational Redox Biology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Professor Conrad received his MSc in Biology from the University of Konstanz and earned his PhD with distinction from Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. Since establishing his laboratory, his research has focused on the mechanisms of redox signaling and oxidative stress in cell cycle progression and cell death. He was the first to develop conditional loss-of-function models for key redox systems in mice, which led to the discovery of a novel form of cell death controlled by glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), now widely known as ferroptosis. His research has identified several key regulators of ferroptosis and pioneered the development of the first in vivo active small-molecule compounds that either inhibit or activate this cell death process. He has authored over 180 scientific publications, has been recognized as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher since 2020, and has received numerous prizes and awards such as the Galenus-von-Pergamon-Prize and the Paul-Martini-Prize.