The ProfsCast

Today Joe Fensterle, Professor of bioengineering at the HSRW in Kleve, welcomes Dr. Karsten Fischer, CEO of memo therapeutics, Switzerland. Dr. Fischer explains why the label “the scientist lost to business” is not wrong and discusses about the long career path from a PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Infection Biology in Berlin via Venture Capitalist, Analyst, McKinsey advisor (just to name a few) until arriving being a CEO. Nevertheless, he points out that also in the biopharmaceutical business it makes a big difference of being a scientist and CEO – or “just” a graduate of a business school, who lacks the in-depth understanding of the science behind pharmaceutical biotech. A shortened video version of the ProfsCast is available on Youtube.

For corona, there will be vaccines – but not for the climate change or the dramatic loss of biological diversity! With their “LecturesForFuture”, the Scientists4Future (S4F) want to emphasise that there is the need for action with respect to an immediate switch towards renewable energies and a more sustainable way of acting. In this LecturesForFuture edition of the ProfsCast, Joachim Fensterle, Professor at the HSRW in Kleve, talks with Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker about climate change and sustainability. Since many years, Prof. von Weizsäcker is one of the most respected researcher, author – and politician – in the context of climate research and sustainability. Prof. von Weizsäcker is a member and a former president of the Club of Rome and he explains how the publication “the limits of growth” paved the way for a change in the public perception of growth. He was the foundation president of the Wuppertal institute which quickly became the most renowned think-tank in the world in this context. He talks about the idea behind the Wuppertal Institute of climate, environment and energy. He also talks about science communication and why this is so important in the times of Fake-News and populistic governments. He shows how solutions with countrywide tradable CO2budgets could help to achieve a fair compensation of developed and developing countries and how important initiatives like FridaysForFuture (FFF) are, that sustainable developments are implemented. The full length versions of this ProfsCast are available both on youtube and the relevant podcast streaming platforms.

Todays guest in the ProfsCast is the soil scientist Prof. Dr. Florian Wichern who is, like the host Joe Fensterle, Professor at the HSRW in Kleve. Prof. Wichern explains, why digging in the dirt can be both fun and science and of course also talks about his career and how he funds his research. During the talk it will become clear, that you can already deduce from the lab coat the actual research field… The shortened video version of the podcast is available on youtube.

The ProfsCast with the guest Patric Bourceau from the Max Planck Institute of Marine Biotechnology in Bremen was recorded directly on the campus of the HSRW in Kleve. This is an exact match with respect to the guest, as Patric Bourceau belongs to the first year of bioengineering students. He speaks with Prof. Joe Fensterle of the HSRW about his research field bacterial symbiosis and his PhD thesis at the MPI – but also how to become a staff scientist at a Max Planck institute directly after finishing in Kleve with the Bachelor of Bioengineering! The shortened video version of the podcast is available on youtube.

Todays guest in the ProfsCast is Prof. Dr. Dr. Jürgen Becker from the University of Essen, Germany. Joe Fensterle, Professor at the HSRW in Kleve, talks with him about his research topic skin cancer / cancer immunology. Prof. Becker talks about “how to get” an MD / PhD, translational research, a special form of skin cancer – namely merkel cell carcinoma and the current break through in cancer therapy with checkpoint inhibitors. The shortened versions of the ProfsCasts are available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbV6qbj31bqXK46PhIAH3lL6jMMBCwQN5

The guest in this episode of the ProfsCast is Dr. Matthias Becker from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany. Joe Fensterle, Professor at the HSRW in Kleve, talks with him about his research topic stem cells – and proteins hanging around in the chromatin. Dr. Becker also explains how CRISPR/Cas is employed in his lab and how lessons learned from stem cell turned out to have a very actual relevance in corona. A short version of this ProfsCast can be found on Youtube.

In his ProfsCast, Prof. Dr. Joachim Fensterle of the Rhine-Waal University in Cleve, Germany, talks with different guests about their research - and more - in the field of biology. This first episode is about the basic idea behind this Podcast series. In brief, it is about bringing state of the art research to the students of Bionegineering - and you.