Dr. Christian Schlieker

Biography

Christian Schlieker is an expert in cellular etiology of movement disorders, focusing on nuclear compartmentalization and biomolecular condensates. He studied biology at the University of Bonn in Germany and the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, earning his PhD in the laboratory of Bernd Bukau at the Center for Molecular Biology in Heidelberg. He used biochemical and biophysical approaches to uncover how Clp/HSP100 AAA+ ATPases counteract proteotoxic protein accumulation. Continuing his training as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow with Hidde Ploegh at Harvard Medical School and the Whitehead Institute/MIT, he explored the ubiquitin-proteasome system and discovered a novel role of ubiquitin-like modifiers in RNA biology. Dr. Schlieker joined the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University in 2009, where he is a Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies. He also holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Cell Biology. His honors include the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and he has served on several scientific advisory boards and review panels, including the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation and the German Excellence Initiative.

Research Interests