Martin Hrabé de Angelis: Commuting between worlds
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- Martin Hrabé de Angelis founded the world’s first ‘mouse clinic’ at the GSF Research Center for Environment and Health. Quelle: GSF/Bernd Müller (Büro 31)
31.10.2006 -
Martin Hrabé de Angelis is not somebody who is happy occupying a single world. Regardless of what he is doing, whether it’s as a drummer in a jazz band, as a surfer riding the waves or as a biologist in the laboratory - this slight man has a knack for pulling others along with him and inspiring them with his passion. As a scientist, the 41-year old has dedicated himself to the systematic analysis of mouse genes, with the aim of increasing the understanding of human illnesses. In 2001 he achieved a coup: within the framework of the German National Genome Research Network (Nationales Genomforschungsnetzes, NGFN), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), he was able to establish the world’s first mouse clinic at the GSF Research Center for Environment and Health in Neuherberg.
Not to be confused with clinics as they are commonly known, this ‘clinic’ will not be nursing poorly mice back to health. Martin Hrabé de Angelis, whose name originates from a mix of Italian and Czech, attaches a great deal of importance to this. “The word ‘clinic’ can be misleading. Actually, we should be called a mouse-mutant phenotyping facility”, he stresses. However, back in 2001, this was deemed to be too much of a tongue twister, when the idea of a German Mouse Clinic became reality.
At that time, the Germans were the first in the world to use standardized procedures to examine genetically modified mice on a large scale. Mouse geneticists such as Hrabé de Angelis are convinced that with the help of the results gained from these procedures, the origins of human diseases can be better understood, as mice and humans share approximately 90 per cent of their DNA. In a facility such as the mouse clinic, the search for relevant genes and their functions can be conducted using a standardized sample, and with the assistance of a variety of experts, all working under one roof.
The mouse as a model for human illnesses. Source: GSF
At present, the program is made up of 14 stations, in which genetically modified animals are checked for around 240 different parameters. Whether it’s lung functions, sense of smell, eye tests or blood type, every deviation is registered and stored. “Most diseases are not based on changes in individual genes, but are actually influenced by a number of genes at the same time”, explains Hrabé de Angelis. The mouse clinic will help us to systematically get to grips with the many genetic interactions, and the influence of the genetic changes that are applied to the laboratory animals on the body as a whole. Hrabé de Angelis is convinced that the mouse clinic will bring added value. “We are giving researchers an integral perspective, with which they can broaden their own insights in their individual specialties.”
Inspired by a fundamental curiosity
Already as a child, Hrabé de Angelis was possessed of a deep-seated curiosity. He collected and bred tadpoles, in order to watch them grow. He looked on with trembling knees as the vet operated on the family’s cat– if only because he was curious to see what was inside its belly. In his cellar he regularly took his chemistry set to its limits, on more than one occasion scarcely saving his parents' house from a minor explosion. On top of this, the youngster was deeply into sport and books, although that was to say nothing of music: "When I was 10 I saw the Glenn Miller story on television and was immediately electrified", remembers Hrabé de Angelis. Jazz, Funk and Soul have always been his favourite genres, and since his youth he has played the drums in a number of bands. When he ultimately began to think about a profession, however, it was clear to him that "a musician can only be successful if he reveals a great deal of himself and his emotions." This was not something that Hrabé de Angelis felt he could depend upon as a career. Instead, he looked for happiness as a teacher, studying biology and sport. "I was so much looking forward to the new discoveries which I would make during my studies that I suppressed the thought that life couldn’t continue in such a way if I became a teacher ", says Hrabé de Angelis. Ultimately, after completing his studies, the researcher inside him finally triumphed. "I thought: School won’t run away. I can always return."
None of the usual researcher stereotypes
Even today, Hrabé de Angelis, can still imagine moving back into a more pedagogical field. Illuminating concepts and reducing complex systems to their essential components – these were things in which he always excelled and were talents he put to good use, for example when explaining complicated sequences of movements to blind student during his sports teacher training. From the beginning of his researcher career, the usual stereotype of the geeky scientist has never applied. With long hair and multicolored surfing shorts, he was regarded as somewhat suspect even by his doctoral father when they first worked together. Today, as before, he remains a commuter between different worlds – catching waves on his surfboard, philosophizing about his faith in God, and possibly in the same breath waxing lyrical about science. His view of the world is open-minded and not necessarily always scientific. Possibly for this reason, he was elected as spokesperson for the German National Genome Research Network (Genomforschungsnetzes, NGFN), promoted by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), a position he has held since July this year.
As a researcher, Hrabé de Angelis worked slowly forwards on various topics, first studying bumblebees as a biologist, then rabbit embryos, before finally discovering the world of genetics: "At this point I noticed that without a trade, you are nothing. The same goes for music. The art will only come out when you’ve got a grasp of the basics."
Lured back to Germany from America
With this insight in the back of his mind, the 29-year-old went to the largest mouse genetics laboratory in the world, in Maine, USA, after having completed his doctorate. There, his superior, Achim Gossler, taught him how to deal with embryonic stem cells and how to breed genetically modified mice. The research-driven atmosphere led him to spend, along with all the other researchers, seven days a week in the laboratory. With a paper on the role of the delta gene in the development of cells, the young German achieved his first publication in Nature magazine (1997, Vol.386, S. 717-721). Even so, somewhere along the way, it became clear that he wanted to understand mechanisms as a whole, and not stop at the analysis of individual genes. Thus, in 1997, Hrabé de Angelis was finally lured back to Germany for a large-scale mutagenesis project based at the GSF Institute for Experimental Genetics of in Neuherberg/Munich. "I could also have gone to the Max-Planck-Institute, but the fresh ground of a large-scale research project particularly piqued my interest", he remembers. The GSF spoke to his temperament - the wish to understand life as a whole. There, for the first time, the aim was to breed genetically modified mice on a large scale and to find suitable animal models for human diseases.
The idea originated from another German scientist with whom Hrabé de Angelis had long been in contact: the mouse geneticist Rudi Balling, today the director of the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig. Much like Hrabé de Angelis, he was also convinced early on of the necessity of a systematic approach on a broad scale. This led him to initiate the Europe-wide Mutagenesis Project. “He is, and remains, a formative figure for me”, says Hrabé de Angelis, who, as coordinator of the project, was called upon to prove his management qualities for the first time. Building on this some years later, he was finally able to bring his pet project, the mouse clinic, to life. The founding of the clinic was made possible by the NGFN, as well as with the cooperation of a number of universities.
Mouse clinic enters the next phase
Today, the services of the clinic are being called upon from all around the world. Researchers from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford are sending their mice to be screened in Neuherberg. Nevertheless, even now, Hrabé de Angelis is one step ahead. As future plans go, he wants to analyze the interactions between the mice’s genetic disposition and environmental influences during the formation and outbreak of a disease. In order to achieve this, even more systematic and complex models will be required. If this can be achieved, the Germans will again be one step ahead in this field. That is, if the financing is successful. Of this, and of the project as a whole, Hrabé de Angelis is confident: “We’re determined to take this step – it would be illogical not to, with the resources that we’ve got”. Also in private, there’s a forward-looking aura accompanying the scientist. Hrabé de Angelis recently became a father – another world in which there’s much to discover.
