Jens Boch's Biography

Jens Boch, Scientist, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg

Jens Boch studied Biology and received his PhD in the Department of Microbiology at the Philipps University Marburg, Germany. He performed postdoctoral studies on plant-pathogen interactions at the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, and the Washington University in St. Louis, USA. Subsequently he established his own research group at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. In 2015 Jens Boch was appointed as Professor for Plant Biotechnology at the Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. Jens Boch has initially discovered how the DNA-binding specificity of TALEs is encoded which enabled the widespread use of this tool for genome engineering. His lab focuses on the development of genome engineering tools, the application of TALEs and CRISPR/Cas in plants, and the development of pathogen-resistant crops.