Thomas Sudhof

Thomas Südhof obtained his M.D. and his doctoral degree from the University of Göttingen in 1982. From 1983-1986, Südhof trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Mike Brown and Joe Goldstein at UT Southwestern, and elucidated the structure, expression and regulation of the LDL receptor gene. Subsequently, Südhof served on the faculty of UT Southwestern in Dallas until 2008, where he â?? among others â?? was the founding chair of the Department of Neuroscience. Since 2008, Südhof is the Avram Goldstein Professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. Südhof has also been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1986. Südhof's interests focus on the physiological and pathological mechanisms operating on the synapse, in particular on how synapses form, how they transmit signals, and how they become abnormal during diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases and autism. His studies have identified key molecules in synapses, such as synaptotagmins as the calcium sensors for neurotransmitter release, Munc18 as a major fusion protein at the synapse, and neurexins and neuroligins as central trans-synaptic cell adhesion molecules, and have elucidated how these molecules shape synaptic function. Südhof is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has won several awards for his work, including most recently the Kavli Award in Neuroscience.

Currently teaching