Prof. Jan C. Behrends

Jan C. Behrends studied Medicine at the University of Munich, Germany, spending a year as a Research Student at the Dept. of Physiology of Kyushu University, Japan. In 1993, he defended a thesis in Experimental Neurophysiology on „Mechanisms of Calcium-Dependent Regulation of Neuronal Excitability“ and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine (summa cum laude). From 1992 to 1994 he was an INSERM fellow at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France and from 1994 to 1995 a fellow of the German Research Council (DFG) at the Max-Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Martinsried near Munich. He then returned to the University of Munich as Research Associate and Assistant Professor (1997), obtained his Habilitation in Physiology with a Thesis on „Inhibitory Synaptic Transmission: Elemental Events and Functional Principles“ in 2002 and was appointed Professor of Physiology at the University of Freiburg in 2003.

His research focuses on cellular and membrane electrophysiology including mechanisms of synaptic transmission as well as on the development of novel experimental tools for electrophysiology, biophysics and nanoscience, including automated higher-throughput patch-clamp and lipid bilayer recording systems.

In 2002, he co-founded Nanion Technologies GmbH, a start-up of the University of Munich, now one of the leading manufacturers of automated (planar) patch clamp devices. He is a scientific member of the Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF) and an associate member of  the Center for Nanoscience (CeNS) at the University of Munich. He was a member of the founding Board of the Freiburg Centre for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies (FIT). He is academic mentor of the start-up project Ionera in the Exist Technology Transfer Program of the Federal Ministry of Commerce (BMWi)and co-founded Ionera Technologies GmbH as a start-up of the University of Freiburg in January 2014.

He shared the Genius Biotech Award Baden Württemberg in 2001, was a Finalist of the German Future Award 2007 (Federal President’s Award for Science and Technology) and in 2009 shared the German Founder’s Award. In 2013 he shared the Innovation Award of the City of Freiburg.