Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff

Professor Rübsamen-Schaeff obtained a chemistry degreefrom the University of Münster in 1971 and a doctorate in 1973 with Herbert Witzel. She performed post-doctoral research in Münster, at Cornell University (Prof. Hess, acetylcholine receptor and biophysical measurements), at the Institute for Medical Virology Gießen (Profs. Bauer & Rott, virology and oncogenes), at the university of Cologne (Institute for Human Virology, head of a working group) and at the Paul Ehrlich Institute in Frankfurt (1981). In 1980s, she was a visiting scientist at Harvard University and specialized in research into the development of cancer and the viruses that play a role in it. In 1983 she habilitated in Frankfurt and from 1982 to 1986 was the head of the Department for Immunotherapy at the Georg-Speyer-Haus chemotherapeutic research institute, where she was managing director from 1987 to 1993. At the Georg-Speyer-Haus she dealt with HIV and oncogenes and succeeded in isolating the first HIV strains in Germany from patients,  showing that the virus occurs in extremely diverse variants and is constantly changing. From 1988 onwards she was a professor of biochemistry and virology at the University of Frankfurt.

She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Germany, Leopoldina and of the German Academy of Technical Sciences, acatech.