Obituary for Fritz Melchers

Georg Friedrich (Fritz) Melchers was born in 1936 in Berlin. He studied Chemistry and obtained his Dr. rer. nat. with Georg Zachau at the Institute for Genetics at the University of Cologne, working on ribonucleic acids. Between 1965 and 1971 he developed his enthusiasm for immunology, at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot and at Stanford University in California.

In 1970, he joined the Basel Institute for Immunology, and made it a prime research institution as its director, from 1980 to 2001, producing the Nobel laureates Tonegawa, Jerne and Köhler. His own research focus was on the development of B lymphocytes, with groundbreaking discoveries of their precursors and a detailed analysis of their antibody formation, including the discovery of the „surrogate light chain“. In 2001, Fritz became a Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, and in 2017, joined the DRFZ as Leibniz Chair. Inspiring research on very early and very late B cell development, microRNAs, Fc-receptors, plasma cells, for a lifetime. He was a distinguished Robert-Koch and Emil von Behring prize awardee.

Apart from being an outstanding scientist, Fritz was recognized as a superb organizer and international networker. He was invited to numerous advisory and editorial boards and scientific academies, and president of the International Union of Immunologists (IUIS). In 1989, Fritz co-organized the impressive 7th International Congress on Immunology in Berlin.

Fritz Melchers also was a founder of the DRFZ, in 1986. The DRFZ was modelled after the Basel Institute for Immunology, with small independent research groups, flat hierarchies and „open doors“. The eminent Av Mitchison was appointed as founding director. Over the years to follow, Fritz continued to have an impact on the development of the DRFZ, until he finally joined in as a scientist himself, adding the most important aspect of B cell development to the institute´s research on rheumatic diseases. “And a role model for young scientists, emphasizing curiosity as a prime virtue of excellent research”, Andrea Radbruch.