Professor Ivan Đikić is a molecular biologist and a leading expert in the fields of ubiquitin biology and autophagy. He was trained as a medical doctor in Zagreb, Croatia, and obtained a PhD degree and a postdoctoral tenure at the New York University. He was then appointed a Group Leader at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Uppsala, Sweden. Since 2003 he is a Professor of Biochemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry II at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. He became the Director of the Institute in 2009, and a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in 2018.

Ivan Đikić's research focuses on deciphering molecular mechanisms of cellular signaling pathways, which have a high relevance to human diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, infections and inflammation. He uses multidisciplinary approaches to study complex biological problems relating to ubiquitin, a small protein that is covalently attached to thousands of cellular proteins. He also studies autophagy in the context of immune responses, bacterial infections and crosstalk with endoplasmic reticulum. Ivan Đikić recently established the large research consortium PROXIDRUGS, a cluster of academic and industry partners dedicated to proximity-inducing drug discovery and preclinical development. A key goal is to develop proximity-inducing therapeutics that drive the ubiquitin-dependent degradation of disease-relevant targets, including proteins, nucleic acids, and organelles.

His scientific work has garnered international recognition, with prestigious awards including the Jung Prize for Medicine and the Leibniz Award, the highest scientific honor in Germany. In 2023, he received the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine. He is an elected member of several academies including EMBO, the German Academy Leopoldina and the European Academy, as well as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ivan Đikić is committed to the education of the next generations of scientists globally. His efforts to popularize science in the public were recognized by the highest civilian state honor of Croatia.

before March 16th