Title: Phytochelatins – multi-tasking metal-binding peptides
Biography:
Stephan Clemens studied biology. After his PhD in plant biochemistry he worked as a postdoc at the University of California in San Diego and cloned the phytochelatin synthase gene. Back in Germany, Stephan started his own group at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry in Halle, continuing to work on plant metal tolerance and metal homeostasis, now including the metal hyperaccumulator Arabidopsis halleri. In 2006, he became chair of plant physiology at the University of Bayreuth. Since 2018, Stephan is involved as founding dean in building a new faculty of Life Sciences that focuses on Food, Nutrition and Health.