Groettrup

The members of the University of Konstanz's Department of Biology and the Biotechnology Institute Thurgau (BITg) mourn for Professor Marcus Groettrup, who passed away after serious illness on June 2 2022, just a few weeks after his 58th birthday. With his death, the Department of Biology and the BITg lose an extraordinary colleague, researcher and teacher whose work has left a lasting mark on all of us and whom we will greatly miss.

Marcus Groettrup had been professor of immunology at the University of Konstanz since 2002. His research aimed to promote a detailed understanding of the immune system and the underlying molecular mechanisms for the various functions of different immune cells – in both healthy and diseased cases. His pioneering research made valuable contributions to the understanding of immune responses to therapeutic approaches to fighting disease, e.g. for developing an immunotherapy to treat cancer.

His enormous enthusiasm for science, his great expertise, his untiring creativity, his extraordinary commitment to research and teaching, and his absolute reliability were all characteristic of his work as a researcher and teacher. Alongside his professorship, Marcus Groettrup had also chaired BITg since 2004, led the Steinbeis Transfer Center SU-1520, worked as head of the Department of Biology from 2010 to 2014, and served for six years as an elected member of the University of Konstanz Senate between 2003 and 2010.

Marcus Groettrup was highly respected as a person and as a researcher. He played a decisive role in shaping the Department of Biology and the BITg and now leaves a large gap in his absence. Even while battling serious illness, he continued to fulfil his professional responsibilities admirably and with great determination. All of us in the Department of Biology owe him a great deal, and we gratefully think back on him and his work. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family and wish them much strength for the days ahead.