Prof. Witold Filipowicz

(born in Warsaw in 1943) graduated from the Medical Academy in Lodz in 1968. He completed his Ph.D. studies at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw in 1973, where he also performed his habilitation and became a Professor in 1991. In 1976-1984 W. Filipowicz directed a research group at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, interested mainly in RNA processing and translational regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells and viruses. In 1974-1984 he also worked at the New York University Medical School, Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in Nutley, USA, and at the Institut Jacques Monod in Paris, as either post-doctoral fellow or a sabbatical visitor. Since 1984 W. Filipowicz is a Staff Scientist at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland, and since 1997 also a Professor at the University of Basel. Currently he is directing a research group of 15 people interested in enzymes regulating RNA metabolism, a role of non-coding RNAs in gene expression, and mechanisms of RNA interference and microRNA function in mammalian cells.