About me
I obtained a Diploma in Human Biology in 1990 and PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology in 1994, both with distinctions from Philipps University Marburg, Germany.
I went on to become Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics where I stayed until 2004. After a sabbatical stay at Yale University, I have been a Principal Investigator of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) in Oxford since its inception in 2003.
In 2008 I became Professor of Molecular Biology at NDORMS, and I am now Deputy Director of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences, Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford, as well as a Fellow of St Catherine’s College.
Research
The research in the Oppermann group focuses on the biology and structure-activity relationships of human metabolic protein families of all types but with emphasis on oxidoreductases such as short – or medium chain dehydrogenases / reductases (SDR, MDR), or oxidative enzymes such as the ketoglutarate dependent oxygenases.
The use of chemical biology to understand human biology is a major focus of the group and is currently applied to the field of epigenetic mechanisms in cancer and stem cell biology, as well as chronic inflammatory and metabolic diseases.