Wolfgang Hoyer

Research Areas

The aggregation of proteins into amyloid fibrillar deposits is a pathological feature of various diseases, including almost every major neurodegenerative disease, e.g. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The working group of Dr. Hoyer investigates the mechanism of amyloid formation and the molecular structures of the protein aggregates involved. It identifies common structural motifs of different disease-associated proteins and examines their suitability as target structures for therapeutic approaches. For these purposes, the scientists involved employ a wide range of techniques in biophysics, biochemistry and molecular biology.

Academic Career

From 1995 to 2000 Dr. Wolfgang Hoyer studied chemistry at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster, the University of York, UK, and the University of Zurich. In his doctoral thesis, Dr. Hoyer worked at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen concentrating on the aggregation of the protein alpha-synuclein, which plays a key role in Parkinson's disease. During his postdoctoral studies with Prof. Torleif Härd at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, he investigated interactions of the Alzheimer's protein amyloid beta with structural biology methods. Since 2009 he is head of a junior research group at the Institute of Physical Biology (Prof. Dieter Willbold) at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. He also works at the Institute of Complex Systems: Structural Biochemistry (ICS-6) at Forschungszentrum Jülich. In November 2018 Wolfgang Hoyer was appointed junior professor for "Chemical Biology of Protein Aggregation" at HHU.

• ERC Consolidator Grant, 2017
• Ulrich-Hadding-Research Award of the "Biological-Medical Research Center (BMFZ)" at HHU, 2016
• NRW-Junior Scientist Research Group, 2009
• DFG research fellowship, 2008
• Research fellowship of Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 2007   
• Research fellowship of the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), 2005   
• DAAD postdoctoral fellowship, 2005   
• Otto Hahn medal for junior researchers, Max Planck Society, 2004
• Kekulé fellowship, Funds of the Chemical Industry, 2001   
• Fellowship, German Academic Scholarship Foundation, 1998