Curriculum Vitae

Renato Paro has been Full Professor and Director of the -Center of Biosystems Science and Engineering of the ETH Zurich- in Basel since August 2006. He is head of the Department Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE).

Renato Paro ist Citizen of Birsfelden in the Kanton Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland. He studied and received his Ph.D. at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel. After post-docs at the University of Edinburgh and Stanford University, he continued his carrier at the Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg (ZMBH) in Germany. Since 2000 he is a member of the directorate of the ZMBH, between 2001 and 2004 as acting director.

Renato Paro does research in epigenetics and chromatin regulation. He is interested in cell memory, which he investigates with the model organism Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly). During the development of a cell to a specialised type ­ say a liver cell ­ the information of what the cell will become has to be maintained over many cell divisions. This information resides in gene-markers, termed histones, which are specifically modified. This way an epigenetic message (beyond the DNA sequence) is encoded, which can be inherited from cell division to cell division.

Under the leadership of Renato Paro, natural scientists, computer scientists and engineers at D-BSSE will describe biological systems in a quantitative way. The simulation of these systems in computer models will play an important role, both for a basic understanding of biological networks, and for medical applications later on. In the focus of the D-BSSE is the cell. One aim will be to unfold the gene networks for the reprogramming of cells, e.g. tissue regeneration. The building blocks of cells, the dynamics in and the communication between cells shall be analysed at the C-BSSE with the newest methods in Systems Biology to provide biological engineers with the construction plans of single cellular machines and in the long run of whole organs.