Prof Fischer is Department Head of the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (RWTH Aachen University, Germany, 60 employees) and Senior Executive Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (500 employees at five sites in Germany and two wholly-owned subsidiaries in the USA and Chile). His expertise covers many areas of molecular biology and biotechnology, focusing on protein engineering, molecular medicine, immunology, virology, plant biotechnology, drug discovery and the GMP manufacturing of novel pharmaceutical products. As well as building research infrastructure at the Fraunhofer IME and RWTH Aachen University, Prof Fischer has raised more than 300 million euros in EU funding and 150 million USD from abroad, collaborated with academic and industry partners in 25 countries, contributed to five start-up companies, published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, made more that 350 invited presentations and is named on 53 patents, granted or pending.