Thomas C. Sudhof

Thomas Christian Südhof was born in Göttingen, Germany, on Dec. 22 in 1955. He obtained his M.D. and doctoral degrees from the University of Göttingen in 1982. He performed his doctoral thesis work at the Max-Planck-Institut für biophysikalische Chemie in Göttingen with Prof. Victor P. Whittaker on the biophysical structure of secretory granules. From 1983-1986, Südhof trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Drs. Mike Brown and Joe Goldstein at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, and elucidated the structure, expression and cholesterol-dependent regulation of the LDL receptor gene. Südhof began his independent career as an assistant professor at UT Southwestern in 1986. When Südhof started his laboratory, he decided to switch from cholesterol metabolism to neuroscience, and to pursue a molecular characterization of synaptic transmission. Südhof ‘s research has brought a broad perspective on brain function at the molecular, physiological, and neuropsychiatric level. His work initially focused on the mechanism of neurotransmitter release which is the first step in synaptic transmission, and whose molecular basis was completely unknown in 1986. Südhof served on the faculty of UT Southwestern in Dallas until 2008, and among others was the founding chair of the Department of Neuroscience at that institution. His current research, at Stanford University, focuses on how synapses are formed and function during development and in the adult. His work looks at the role of synaptic cell-adhesion molecules in shaping synapse properties, on pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms of membrane traffic, and on impairments in synapse formation and function in neuropsychiatric disorders. To address these questions, Südhof's laboratory employs approaches ranging from biophysical and biochemical studies to the physiological and behavioral analyses. In 2013, Südhof was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Dr. James E. Rothman and Dr. Randy W. Schekman for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.