Dr. Thomas Schwarz-Romond
Director of Operations
From the start of my career, I have been fascinated by cutting-edge research with an inherent potential to impact diagnostics and therapy. The role as Director of Operations presents me with the rare opportunity to conceptualize, shape and structure an exciting and novel research endeavour at the interface of bioengineering, biomedicine and bioinformatics. It uniquely enables me to blend (i) my expertise from visibly published active research in major European institutions with (ii) a general perspective on disease-relevant science and tangible networks established as senior Editor at The EMBO Journal and (iii) problem-solving, project management and communication skills from a complementary MBA to accelerate HPC-deployment and its international positioning.

Factsheet
Dr. Thomas Schwarz-Romond
Positions and Career
2017 - present
Director of Operations, Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, Helmholtz Zentrum München,
2015-2017
Manager Strategic Engagements & Executive Publisher, Elsevier, Germany
2006-2015
Senior Scientific Editor The EMBO Journal & Project lead cross-departmental initiatives, EMBO, Heidelberg
2003-2006
Postdoc, Department of Cell Biology (Mariann Bienz, PhD, FRS, FMedSci), MRC-LMB Cambridge, UK
1997-2002
PhD, Molecular & Cell Biology ‘summa cum laude' (Profs. W. Birchmeier and J. Behrens), MDC for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
1995-1996
Research fellow at the Institute for Molecular Medicine, Dep. of Endocrinology (Prof. P.O. Berggren), Karolinska Institute Stockholm, Sweden
Education
2009-2011
MBA Focus ‘Leadership’, Graduate School of Management & Law, Heilbronn, Thesis: ‘Strategic alliances in the non-profit sector’
1997-2002
PhD, Molecular & Cell Biology ‘summa cum laude' (Profs. W. Birchmeier and J. Behrens), MDC for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
1989-1994
Diploma in Molecular Biology, University of Greifswald, Germany
Honors and Awards
Inventor of ‘Method of inhibiting human Trabid’ MRC-Patent 9074202
2009
Fellowship towards an MBA, Dieter Schwarz foundation
2004
Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (FP 6)
2002
EMBO long-term -postdoctoral fellowship
2001
Poster Price, Nature Reviews in Cell Biology,
1991
DAAD short-term fellowship Memory Research Centre Tiflis
Selected Publications
Microbiota: ‘bugging’ insights into metabolic regulation.
Schwarz-Romond T.
Molecular Metabolism. 2016 Sep; 5(9):iv-v. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2016.07.006.
Focus on induced pluripotency and cellular reprogramming.
Schwarz-Romond T, Kiskinis E, Eggan K.
EMBO J. 2015 Jun 3;34(11):1435. doi:10.15252/embj.201591615.
Three decades of Wnt signalling.
Schwarz-Romond T.
EMBO J. 2012 Jun 13;31(12):2664. doi: 10.1038/emboj.2012.159.
Focus on the spatial organization of signalling.
Schwarz-Romond T, Gorski SA.
EMBO J. 2010 Aug 18;29(16):2675-6. doi: 10.1038/emboj.2010.185.
Trabid, a new positive regulator of Wnt-induced transcription with preference for binding and cleaving K63-linked ubiquitin chains.
Tran H, Hamada F, Schwarz-Romond T, Bienz M.
Genes Dev. 2008 Feb 15;22(4):528-42. doi: 10.1101/gad.463208.
Dynamic recruitment of axin by Dishevelled protein assemblies.
Schwarz-Romond T, Metcalfe C, Bienz M.
J Cell Sci. 2007 Jul 15;120(Pt 14):2402-12. doi: 10.1242/jcs.002956
The DIX domain of Dishevelled confers Wnt signaling by dynamic polymerization.
Schwarz-Romond T, Fiedler M, Shibata N, Butler PJ, Kikuchi A, Higuchi Y, Bienz M.
Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2007 Jun;14(6):484-92. doi: 10.1038/nsmb1247
The Wnt signalling effector Dishevelled forms dynamic protein assemblies rather than stable associations with cytoplasmic vesicles.
Schwarz-Romond T, Merrifield C, Nichols BJ, Bienz M.
J Cell Sci. 2005 Nov 15;118(Pt22):5269-77. doi: 10.1242/jcs.02646
The ankyrin repeat protein Diversin recruits Casein kinase Iepsilon to the beta-catenin degradation complex and acts in both canonical Wnt and Wnt/JNK signaling.
Schwarz-Romond T, Asbrand C, Bakkers J, Kühl M, Schaeffer HJ, Huelsken J, Behrens J, Hammerschmidt M, Birchmeier W.
Genes Dev. 2002 Aug 15;16(16):2073-84. doi: 10.1101/gad.230402
Short-term regulation of insulin gene transcription by glucose.
Leibiger B, Moede T, Schwarz T, Brown GR, Köhler M, Leibiger IB, Berggren PO.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Aug 4;95(16):9307-12.