Angelika M. Vollmar

Director ofthe Department of Pharmacy-Center of Drug Research at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany

Angelika Vollmar was trained as a pharmacist and obtained her PhD in Pharmaceutical Biology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. With a fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) she carried out a postdoctoral training with Dr. Harvey R. Herschmann at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UCLA, USA focusing on constructing "magic bullets" against cancer such as EGF-toxin conjugates. Back in Germany she expanded her scientific experiences moving to the School of Veterinary Medicine working on biogenic drugs such as natriuretic peptides and became Associate Professor for Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacy.

Receiving a Chair position and full Professorship at the Department of Pharmacy in Munich Dr. Vollmar continued to promote natural product research as she is truly convinced that nature provides a fascinating pool of substances for drug development. The Vollmar Lab aims at deciphering the therapeutical potential of natural compounds focussing on cancer. In particular, natural compounds are characterized with respect to their effects on tumor metabolism, tumor growth and metastasis as well as tumor angiogenesis. As such Dr. Vollmar is speaker of the DFG-Research Group 1406 ( http://www.for1406.uni-muenchen.de/index.html ) concentrating on compounds of myxobacterial origin and their impact on cancer therapy.

Dr. Vollmar is engaged in a number of scientific organisations: she has been member of the "Senate of the German Research Foundation (DFG)", she is speaker of the Scientific Advisory Board of the "Robert-Bosch-Stiftung", member of the advisory board of the "Deutsche Krebshilfe" and of DECHEMA ("Small Molecule Natural Compounds with Biological Activity"). Among other awards she received the "Bundesverdienstkreuz- the order of merit of the federal republic of germany". Last but not least Dr. Vollmar shows a burning commitment in promoting the careers of young researchers being involved in a variety of mentoring programs.