About

Claudia Schmidt-Dannert, PhD, is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Kirkwood Chair of Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota. She is also the Director of the BioTechnology Institute at the university. Her educational background includes a BS and MS in Biochemistry and Genetics from TU Braunschweig, and a PhD from the National Research Center for Biotechnology (GBF, now Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research) in Braunschweig. She conducted her postdoctoral research at the University of Stuttgart and led the Molecular Biotechnology Group at the Institute of Technical Biochemistry as a Habilitant. In 1998, she received a habilitation-fellowship from the German Science Foundation for her research on in vitro pathway evolution, and in 2018, she collaborated with Nobel Laureate Prof. Frances Arnold at Caltech on molecular breeding of pathways using carotenoid biosynthesis as a model system. She joined the University of Minnesota faculty in 2000. Her research focuses on designing self-organizing systems from genetically encoded protein building blocks for applications in biocatalysis, biosynthesis, and as functional materials. Her lab engineers microbial cells to produce living materials and biocomposites, including synthetic biofilms with tailored functions. A long-standing interest in her research involves discovering and designing biosynthetic pathways, such as those from mushrooms, for the production of pharmaceutically relevant compounds.

Research topics

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Biochemistry
• Computational biology
• Molecular biology

Recent grants

• Training for Future Biotechnology Development

  NIH · $12.4M · 1990–2023

• NIH Grant R01GM080299

  NIH · $1.1M · 2014

Frequent coauthors

• Maureen B. Quin

  Biotechnology Institute

  7 shared

• Swati Choudhary

  Ferring Pharmaceuticals (Denmark)

  6 shared

• Rolf D. Schmid

  3 shared

• Jutta Schmitt

  University of Stuttgart

  3 shared

• Erin K. Marasco

  2 shared

• Uwe T. Bornscheuer

  Universität Greifswald

  2 shared

• Sarah Schmidt-Dannert

  University of Minnesota

  2 shared

• M. Luisa Rúa

  Universidade de Vigo

  2 shared

Awards & honors

• Dr. James E. Rubin Medical Memorial Award
• Graduating Medical Student Research Award
• Veneziale-Steer Award
• Dr. Marvin and Hadassah Bacaner Research Awards
• Schmidt Steer Award

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• Eamonn Maherh-172
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• Paul Robbinsh-126
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