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Meet Uwe Rix

1.    Tell me in 5 words who is Uwe Rix?
Passionate, dedicated, curious, rational, perspicacious.

2.    What made you join CeMM?
My main motivations were to learn chemical proteomics and do cool systems biology-type science with Giulio while at the same time being able to work with Lily. Having access to state-of-the-art technology and instrumentation was another important aspect.

3.    What is it about science that interests you the most?
To unravel the molecular workings of cancer cells at the interface of chemistry and biology.

4.    What is the best career advice you ever received, or you can give to the CeMM community?
Do what you love, work hard, regularly collect input from your boss and your peers, trust your gut feeling!

5.    Tell us what happened to you after you left CeMM?
Lily and I started our own lab at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida 11 years ago. Things are going well and I have been promoted and received tenure. We even have initiated a couple of clinical trials based on our work. However, against all expectations we somehow still have not cured cancer yet.

6.    What book do you have on your night table at the moment?
“Death in the Andes” by Mario Vargas Llosa. Visiting Peru and seeing Machu Picchu, the Nazca lines and the Amazon rain forest are high on my bucket list!

7.    What is the last song you heard?
All sorts of Christmas songs. Makes me miss the Vienna Christmas markets!

8.    Any message you would like to give to the CeMMies or a former colleague?
Stop by for a visit sometime!

I received my Masters degree (Diplom) in Chemistry from the University of Göttingen, Germany, and my Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences under the mentorship of Jürgen Rohr at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) before joining Giulio’s group at CeMM as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2011, I joined the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, as Faculty in the Department of Drug Discovery and the Molecular Medicine (MM) Program. Here, my research focusses on elucidating cancer drug effects, targets and signaling mechanisms using systems chemical biology approaches, in particular small molecule phenotypic screening in combination with chemical and functional proteomics.