Angewandte Chemie International EditionVolume 56, Issue 36 p. 10638-10638 Author ProfileFree Access Jörn Piel First published: 10 April 2017 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201702698AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Graphical Abstract “In a spare hour, I like to cook. My favorite drink is espresso for work/a good IPA for fun. ...” This and more about Jörn Piel can be found on page 10638. Jörn Piel The author presented on this page has recently published his 10th article in Angewandte Chemie in the last 10 years: “An Orthogonal D2O-Based Induction System that Provides Insights into d-Amino Acid Pattern Formation by Radical S-Adenosylmethionine Peptide Epimerases”: B. I. Morinaka, M. Verest, M. F. Freeman, M. Gugger, J. Piel, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 762; Angew. Chem. 2017, 129, 780. Date of birth: January 9, 1967 Position: Professor, Institute for Microbiology, ETH Zurich E-mail: jpiel@ethz.ch Homepage: http://www.micro.biol.ethz.ch/research/piel.html ORCID: 0000-0002-2282-8154 Education: 1994 Diploma in Chemistry, University of Bonn 1998 PhD with Prof. Wilhelm Boland, University of Bonn 1998–1999 Postdoc with Bradley S. Moore and Heinz G. Floss, University of Washington, Seattle 2000–2004 Habilitation mentored by Wilhelm Boland, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena Research: Bacterial and marine bioactive natural products, biosynthesis, chemical ecology Hobbies: Cooking, struggling to learn the piano In a spare hour, I like to cook. My favorite drink is espresso for work/a good IPA for fun. My favorite book is … one of my favorites is Crime and Punishment. The last book I was impressed with was In Times of Fading Light by Eugen Ruge. The natural talent I would like to be gifted with is the ability to play a musical instrument well. My motto is “Don't live by one motto, there are always new things to learn”. Last time I went to the pub I was with my students, and was glad that they asked me to join because they wanted to, not because they had to. If I could repeat any experience, I would relive the day our daughter was born. My biggest inspiration is the mind-blowing complexity of nature, wonderful students, and luck—in no particular order. My favorite time of day is seeing my family when I come home. I admire Johann Sebastian Bach. I get advice from my wife. I advise my students to be in charge and enjoy the adventure. My favorite way to spend a holiday is to explore interesting food. My 5 top papers: References 1“A polyketide synthase-peptide synthetase gene cluster from an uncultured bacterial symbiont of Paederus beetles”: J. Piel, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2002, 99, 14002. (One of my first papers as an independent PI and for me an immense relief to know that the research concept would work out.) 2“Biosynthesis of the Antibiotic Bacillaene, the Product of a Giant Polyketide Synthase of the trans-AT Family”: J. Moldenhauer, X.-H. Chen, R. Borriss, J. Piel, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 8195; Angew. Chem. 2007, 119, 8343. (Helped to understand how some of the most complex known biosynthetic machineries construct natural products.) 3“Exploiting the mosaic structure of trans-acyltransferase polyketide synthases for natural product discovery and pathway dissection”: T. Nguyen et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 2008, 26, 225. (A general rationale to predict functions of these previously enigmatic enzymes.) 4“Metagenome Mining Reveals Polytheonamides as Modified Ribosomal Peptides”: M. F. Freeman, C. Gurgui, M. J. Helf, B. I. Morinaka, A. R. Uria, N. J. Oldham, H.-G. Sahl, S. Matsunaga, J. Piel, Science 2012, 338, 387. (A peptide with 28 nonproteinogenic residues, among them 18 d-amino acids, is of ribosomal origin.) 5“An environmental bacterial taxon with a large and distinct metabolic repertoire”: M. C. Wilson et al., Nature 2014, 506, 58. (This Swiss–Japanese–German–US collaboration showed that “microbial dark matter”, i.e., uncultivated microbes, contain rich and unusual sources of bioactive natural products.) Volume56, Issue36August 28, 2017Pages 10638-10638 ReferencesRelatedInformation