Markus Seeliger developed an interest in protein engineering, biophysical chemistry and structural biology during his diploma research at the Center for Protein Engineering with Alan Fersht and Laura Itzhaki. He pursued his graduate research with Laura Itzhaki on the folding,dynamics and function of a small cell-cycle adapter protein called Cks1.  Incidentally, Cks1 connects kinase and ubiquitin signaling by targeting the Cdk2 inhibitor p27 to the ubiquitin ligase SCF/Skp2. For his postdoctoral research, Markus decided to join John Kuriyan’s group at Berkeley to study the solution dynamics of Abl kinase. This research led into a Pathway to Independence Award from the NIH and in 2009 Markus decided to join the faculty at Stony Brook University Medical School, which provides an exciting environment for research in biophysical chemistry and structural biology through proximity to the excellent facilities at Brookhaven National Lab, medical research at Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine, and computational biology at the Laufer Center and to his collaborators in New York.