Michael Hollmann studied biochemistry at the University of Tübingen (diploma 1984) where he also received his PhD in 1988 for a thesis project done at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. From 1988-1994 he was a post-doc at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA, from where he returned to Germany as a Heisenberg group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen. He received his Venia Legendi (Habilitation) in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Medicine of Göttingen University in 1998. In 1999 he was appointed C4 Professor for Biochemistry at the Ruhr University in Bochum, and heads the Department Biochemistry I -Receptor Biochemistry within the Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research group is interested in structure-function relationships of ionotropic glutamate receptors (GluRs) and the physiological function, modulation and regulation of GluRs in vertebrates, invertebrates, and plants. Current specific research goals include the elucidation of receptor assembly and trafficking from the ER to the plasma membrane including its role in synaptic plasticity, particularly the role TARPs (transmembrane AMPA receptor-modulatory proteins) play in receptor trafficking and functional modulation. Another area of interest is the potential function of GluRs during stem cell differentiation. In addition, it is a goal of the group to reveal the elusive physiological function of several lesser known glutamate receptor subfamilies such as the delta receptors 1 and 2, the NMDA receptor subunits NR3A and NR3B, the kainate binding proteins only found in non-mammalian vertebrates, and the 20 completely uncharacterized Arabidopsis thaliana GluRs. In addition, his group investigates glutamate receptors as targets of autoimmune processes in neuroinflammatory diseases such as Rasmussen`s disease and Multiple Sclerosis.