Renowned biochemist Professor Gottfried Schatz, University of Basel, Switzerland, has passed away on October 1, 2015.

Schatz’s research focused on mitochondria. He played a leading role in understanding the biogenesis of mitochondria and in the discovery of mitochondrial DNA, which is passed on independently from DNA in the cell’s nucleus. He also discovered transport systems ferrying mitochondrial proteins synthesized in the cytoplasm into the organelles. After his retirement, he found a new role as author and essayist.

Gottfried Schatz studied chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Graz, Austria, where he received his Ph.D. in 1961. He then worked as a researcher at the University of Vienna, Austria, the Public Health Research Institute, NY, USA, and at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. In 1974, he was appointed as a Professor at the Institute of Biochemistry, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland.

Professor Schatz was Secretary General of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) from 1984 to 1989. Among other honors, he was a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and received the Sir Hans Krebs Medal by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) in 1986, the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine by the Louis-Jeantet Foundation in 1990, the Marcel Benoist Prize by the Marcel Benoist Foundation in 1992, and the Canada Gairdner Foundation International Award in 1998.

Selected Publications

• The faces of Big Science,
  Gottfried Schatz,
  Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2014, 15, 423–426.
  DOI: 10.1038/nrm3807
• Getting mitochondria to center stage,
  Gottfried Schatz,
  Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 2013, 434, 407–410.
  DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2013.03.081
• The neglected genome,
  Graziano Pesole, John F Allen, Nick Lane, William Martin, David M Rand, Gottfried Schatz, Cecilia Saccone,
  EMBO Rep. 2012, 13, 473–474.
  DOI: 10.1038/embor.2012.57
• The Endangered Bond,
  Gottfried Schatz,
  Science 2012, 335, 635–635.
  DOI: 10.1126/science.1219756
• The Magic Garden,
  Gottfried Schatz,
  Annu. Rev. Biochem. 2007, 76, 673–678.
  DOI: 10.1146/annurev.biochem.76.060806.091141
• Protein import into mitochondria: a paradigm for the translocation of polypeptides across membranes,
  Kevin Hannavy, Sabine Rospert, Gottfried Schatz,
  Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 1993, 5, 694–700.
  DOI: 10.1016/0955-0674(93)90142-D