Johannes grew up in Rysum and Bremen, Germany. He studied chemistry and biochemistry at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich and the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Johannes gained his first research experience as a visiting researcher with Chris Chang and John Hartwig at UC Berkeley. From there he went on to pursue his graduate studies with Dirk Trauner at New York University. While at NYU, Johannes developed photoswitchable lipids that enable the precise spatiotemporal control of lipid biology and metabolism in cells and in vivo. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2021, Johannes moved to UCSF as a NIH NCI F99/K00 and K99/R00 postdoctoral fellow with Kevan Shokat and worked on expanding the druggability of GTPases, which were long considered 'undruggable' targets. Upon completion of his postdoctoral studies in 2025, Johannes will join Caltech CCE as an Assistant Professor. His group will work on Lipid and Membrane Chemical Biology.
Honors and Awards
- 2023 NIH NCI K99/R00 Award
- 2023 GBM Karl Lohmann Award
- 2022 Thudichum Young Scientist Award by the Phospholipid Research Center
- 2022 EDMC-YSN PhD Prize
- 2022 Friedrich Hirzebruch Dissertation Recognition by German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung)
- 2022 GDCh PhD Prize Medicinal Chemistry
- 2022 NYU University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award
- 2022 NYU GSAS Dean's Outstanding Dissertation Award
- 2022 1st Prize Sphingolipid Biology Webinar PhD Contest
- 2020 NIH NCI F99/K00 Award
- 2019 NYU Margaret and Herman Sokol Fellowship
- 2019 Lina Obeid Award
- 2019 NYU Horizon Fellowship in the Natural and Physical Sciences
- 2017 German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung) PhD Fellowship
- 2017 NYU MacCracken PhD Fellowship
- 2016 GBM Master's Thesis Award
- 2014 German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung) Fellowship
- 2012 Erasmus Fellowship
- 2011 Germany Scholarship Fellowship