CZS Endowed Professorship for Synthetic Biology

Focus:	Life Science Technologies
Type of funding:	Individual funding programmes
Programme:	CZS-endowed professorships at universities
Funded institution:	University of Freiburg

Prof. Dr. Simon Elsässer has held the Chair of Synthetic Biology at the University of Freiburg since October 1, 2025. His research focuses on the question of how the human epigenome can be interpreted and controlled.

Goals

The CZS Endowed Chair of Synthetic Biology investigates how cells in our body interpret external signals and stored - so-called epigenetic - traits in order to control their function. Changes in epigenetic characteristics can lead to diseases or cause people to age more quickly. Prof. Elsässer is particularly interested in understanding the interactions between the epigenome and the environment as well as disease-related changes and finding possible therapeutic approaches.

This project focuses on researching the malleability of epigenetic traits in the human organism. Liquid biopsies - i.e. non-invasive samples such as blood plasma - from human donors play an important role here: Prof. Elsässer is developing new technologies to read epigenetic characteristics of the entire human organism from such samples. Large-scale studies of liquid biopsies will be used to uncover correlations between environmental influences or disease states and epigenetic changes. This will provide new insights into how lifestyle, ageing, disease history and medical interventions influence our epigenome and how pathological changes can be detected early and possibly treated.

Prof. Elsässer is also an Alexander von Humboldt Professor.