Residence Switzerland Nationality Croatia Name Nenad Ban | ||
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Known for Structural biology, structure and function of the ribosome, structure and function of multi-enzymes Alma mater University of Zagreb, University of California, Riverside | ||
Doctoral advisor Alexander McPherson | ||
Nenad ban kukuljanovo
Nenad Ban is a Croatian biochemist born in Zagreb, Croatia who currently works at the ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, as a professor of Structural Molecular Biology.
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Nenad ban plava lumbrela
Career
Nenad Ban was born in 1966 in Zagreb. His parents, Jasna and Zvonimir, were scientists and university professors. He received a degree in molecular biology at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb and decided to continue with his studies in the United States where he obtained a PhD degree at the University of California, Riverside in the laboratory of Alexander McPherson. His interest in large macromolecular assemblies led him for his postdoctoral work to the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University where he determined the atomic structure of the large ribosomal subunit by X-ray crystallography, as part of the group in the laboratory of Thomas A. Steitz. These results demonstrated that the ribosome is a ribozyme.
Since 2000 Nenad Ban is a professor of structural molecular biology at the ETH Zurich. (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). His group is studying structure and function of large cellular assemblies using a combination of crystallographic, electron microscopic and biochemical experiments. Specifically focusing on various ribosomal complexes involved in co-translational protein processing, folding, and targeting.
His group has obtained detailed structural information on eukaryotic ribosomes, which are significantly larger and more complex than their bacterial counterparts, by determining the first complete structures of both eukaryotic ribosomal subunits each in complex with an initiation factor. Furthermore, his group investigated giant multifunctional enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis offer first mechanistic insights into substrate shuttling and delivery in such megasynthases, with direct implications for our understanding of polyketide synthases.
Honors
Nenad Ban is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the German Academy of Sciences, the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of several prizes and awards including the Heinrich Wieland Prize, Roessler Prize of the ETH Zurich, the Latsis prize, the Friedrich Miescher Prize of the Swiss Society for Biochemistry, Spiridon Brusina medal, the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize. and the Ernst Jung Prize.
Personal life
Ban is married to Eilika Weber, a German scientist whom he met in the United States during his doctoral study. They have two sons, Arvid (born c. 2001) and Ivo (born c. 2004).