Gunnar Von Heijne

Professor Nils Gunnar Hansson von Heijne, born 10 June 1951 in Gothenburg, is a Swedish scientist working on signal peptides, membrane proteins and bioinformatics at the Stockholm Center for Biomembrane Research at Stockholm University. Gunnar von Heijne graduated 1975 with a Master of Science degree in chemistry and chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). He then became a doctoral student in theoretical physics at KTH, in a research group focussing on statistical mechanics and theoretical biophysics, and was awarded his Ph.D. in 1980. In 1983 he was made docent in theoretical biophysics at KTH, where he remained until 1988. 1982-1985 he was active as a science reporter at Sveriges Radio. 1989-1994 he was active at Karolinska Institutet, and in 1994 he was made a professor in theoretical chemistry at Stockholm University. von Heijne's research primarily concerns membrane proteins, and he is one of the most cited Swedish scientists in the areas of biochemistry and molecular biology. He heads the Center for Biomembrane Research at Stockholm University.