• 1986-1991  Studies of Biochemistry and Crystallography, University Leipzig, Germany
• 1990-1991 Research Student in Biochemistry
• 1991  Exchange Student at the Technion Haifa, Israel
• 1992-1995  PhD-Thesis (Dr. rer. nat.) at MPI for Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany
• 1996-1998  Industry-Postdoc Biozentrum, Basel, Switzerland
• 1999-2003 Habilitation (Dr. rer. nat. habil.) in Biophysical Chemistry
• 2003-2006 Independent Group leader in Structural Biochemistry
• 2006-2012 Associate Professor for Biochemistry, University of Manitoba, Canada
• 2006-2016  Tier-2  Canada Research Chair in Structural Biology
• 2013    Promotion to the rank of  Full Professor
• 2013-2015  Associate/Acting Head of Department of Chemistry
• 2014-  Co-Founder/Director of COGRAD
• 2017-  Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Structural Biology and Biophysics
• 2019- Founder of CISB
• 2018-2021  Recipient of five AIMS awards in Structure-based drug design by ATOMWISE

Current Research

Dr. Stetefeld studies the structural and functional aspects of receptor-ligand interactions that play important roles in biology and human disease. To do this, he integrates traditional structural biology approaches with in-depth biophysical characterisation. The overarching  goal is to obtain detailed mechanistic insights of how ligand binding is structurally coupled to receptor activation, and to exploit this information to manipulate signaling with resulting in therapeutics. The Stetefeld laboratory focuses on “dependence receptors”, and their role in targeted apoptosis. In a secound avenue of research, the structure-property relationship of CCN family members is studied.

Since arrival at UM, Dr. Stetefeld has recruited ~$12.9M in infrastructure support, including grants from CFI (4), WED (2) and NSERC-RTI (8). He successfully received ~$10.2M to establish his research program, including support from the CRC-program (3), CIHR (8), NSERC (6), Heart-and-Stroke Foundation (3) and Multiple Sclerosis Society Canada (1). The latest addition, a cryo-3D TEM was supported in part by the Dean of FOS, CFI and an award by the Presidents office at UM. Dr. Stetefeld has published over hundred peer-reviewed research papers, including articles in Nature Communications (1), PlosBiology (1), Cancer Cell (1), Nature Genetics (1), Nature Structural Biology (2), EMBO J (5), PNAS (1), NAR (4) and Matrix Biology (5) and he has filed three international patent applications. Since 2009, in total 15 graduate students finished successfully their MSc/PhD-thesis.

Personal Research Statement

I have been running my own research program for more than two decades and I can say: “I have seen it all”. Over the years, I have realized that having access to world-class infrastructure and developing challenging research programs is only one part of the success story. The lab members, the collaborators abroad  and the technical support staff play a pivotal role in each and every project and are essential to enjoy success, but also to fight through rough stretches. I am in the very fortunate situation to work with excellent colleagues in my own research group and to interact with very close friends in highly collaborative research projects. All of them demonstrate highest standards in research and tremendous enthusiasm for their work.

I am very thankful for this opportunity!