Max Birnstiel Foundation

Max Birnstiel was a pioneer of molecular biology, inspiring mentor, enabler of careers and creator of European scientific institutions. Born in Bahia to a Brazilian mother and a Swiss father, his personality had many facets, combining sharp wit, great perseverance and a keen drive to succeed with a generous and sociable personality and an expert appreciation for culture and art.

Early Career

When Max Birnstiel was five years old, his family moved to Switzerland. Max always had a keen interest in biology and, after graduating from high school, enrolled at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, where he majored in physical chemistry on the advice of his botany professor Albert Frey-Wyssling. This unorthodox choice for an aspiring biologist taught him how to look at complex biological questions from a quantitative perspective. After obtaining his PhD in botany, he moved to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to work as a postdoctoral fellow with James Bonner. Here, he met some of the 20th century’s greatest biologists, including Linus Pauling, Renato Dulbecco and Max Delbrück, and witnessed the early beginnings of the biological revolution. Max Birnstiel was one of the first researchers to use the then revolutionary technique of RNA/DNA hybridisation to show that the ribosomal RNA genes of eukaryotes are highly repetitive.

Gene Pioneer

In 1963, Max Birnstiel was recruited by Conrad Waddington to the University of Edinburgh, where he rose through the ranks from lecturer to professor in 1971. During this time, he and his colleague Hugh Wallace managed to purify the repetitive ribosomal RNA genes of the frog to homogeneity by repeated rounds of density gradient centrifugation. This was the first time that a single gene had been purified by using solely physical methods, long before the advent of restriction enzymes, recombinant DNA cloning and PCR techniques, which later revolutionized genome analysis.

Early Principles of Gene Regulation

In 1972, Max Birnstiel was offered a chair in molecular biology at the University of Zurich, where he purified and characterized the sea urchin histone genes as the first protein-coding genes of a multicellular organism by using an improved density gradient centrifugation procedure. With his experience in gene isolation, he subsequently had a head start in quickly adopting the new method of recombinant DNA cloning for studying eukaryotic gene regulation. Among many important discoveries, he identified a regulatory element of histone genes, which he named "modulator" and which fulfilled all the criteria of enhancers that were subsequently identified. Moreover, his team discovered the basic principle of mRNA 3’ end processing by demonstrating that a small nuclear RNA as part of an RNA-protein complex was responsible for the correct recognition and cleavage of the precursor RNA, thus forming the 3’ end of the mRNA. His rapidly growing scientific reputation and the resources at the Institute of Molecular Biology II attracted many brilliant young scientists, including Meinrad Busslinger, Rudolf Grosschedl, Walter Schaffner, and Carmen Birchmeier.

By the mid 1980s, Max Birnstiel was an acclaimed international scientist, the head of a prestigious institute and an icon of Swiss science. As a good scientific citizen, he served as Chairman of the EMBO Council and organized many international conferences on gene regulation. In recognition of his great scientific achievements, he received numerous awards and honours, including the membership of the US National Academy of Sciences, honorary doctorates and professorships.

Modern Biology in Vienna

In 1986, he was again ready for a change and accepted the challenge to establish a new basic research institute in Vienna that was financed as a joint venture of the pharmaceutical companies Genentech and Boehringer-Ingelheim. He rapidly managed to recruit the 5 internationally renowned senior scientists Hartmut Beug, Adrian Bird, Meinrad Busslinger, Kim Nasmyth and Erwin Wagner. With all his experience, enthusiasm, and wisdom, Max Birnstiel succeeded together with this team to develop the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) into an international center of excellence in molecular biology and biomedicine. From the start, he also had the vision to use the IMP as a nucleation point for the development of a Vienna BioCenter. Birnstiel served as IMP’s founding director from 1986 until his retirement in 1996, and, when he left, the institute was not only playing in the top league of biomedical research centers, but had also sparked off the development of today’s renowned Vienna BioCenter (VBC).

His Legacy

Max Birnstiel passed away in 2014, but his legacy lives on and is cherished in many ways. One of his visionary ideas for the IMP was to ensure a constant influx of young, critical minds, which was essential for further increasing the international visibility and research excellence of the institute. This philosophy is reflected by today’s VBC PhD Programme, successfully running for the past 25 years, and the VBC Summer School, now into its tenth year. Birnstiel himself was a brilliant teacher and inspiring role-model. Although his enormous knowledge and legendary reputation may have felt intimidating at times, he was a father figure for the early IMP community and fostered the careers of many aspiring scientists. As Adrian Bird, who did his PhD with Max Birnstiel in Edinburgh, remembers: "His enthusiasm was infectious and became part of our way of doing research later on. We were his scientific ’family’ and he unstintingly gave us his time, energy and wisdom.".