Kai Heimel studied Biology with focus on Genetics, Microbiology, and Biochemistry at Philipps University Marburg. He received his doctorate from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg on studies of regulatory networks controlling development in the fungus Ustilago maydis in 2010. After two years of postdoctoral studies at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology, he moved at the University of Göttingen at the Institute of Microbiology and Genetics (IMG), where he became Junior Professor in 2012. He was appointed adjunct professor in 2018 and spent 2019 as a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Since 2021, he has been Heisenberg-Professor at the IMG Göttingen.
His research focuses on signal transduction and regulatory interactions between the unfolded protein response (UPR) and other cellular signalling pathways in the context of organismal interactions. His teaching covers genetics, cell biology, and microbiology in various Bachelor’s and Master’s programs within the Faculty of Biology and Psychology at the University of Göttingen.
