Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
J. Philipp Benz (born 1977) studied biology at the TU Braunschweig
(2003). The research work for his thesis was done in the laboratory of
Nigel Crawford at UC San Diego (CA, USA). He subsequently performed
his dissertation at the LMU Munich, working in the research group of
Ju ¨rgen Soll (Department of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants)
(2009). He then returned to the USA to become a postdoctoral fellow
in the laboratory of Chris Somerville at the Energy Biosciences Institute
(UC Berkeley, CA, USA) where he started to work on filamentous fungi.
In 2014, he was appointed assistant professor for Wood Bioprocesses at
the Technical University of Munich (TUM School of Life Sciences
Weihenstephan, Holzforschung Mu ¨nchen). In 2020, he was tenured at
TUM and advanced to become associate professor for Fungal Biotechnology in Wood Science. His research group is studying the processes
used by filamentous fungi to degrade lignocellulosic biomass. Central
questions are how fungi perceive the composition of the plant biomass
on a molecular level and how they adapt their metabolism to effectively
degrade the substrate.
Kerstin Schipper (born 1980) completed her studies in biology at
Osnabru ¨ck University in 2005. For the research work of her master’s
thesis, she moved to the laboratory of Heinrich Jung at LMU Munich.
She then performed her dissertation and a short postdoctoral time
under the supervision of Regine Kahmann at the Max Planck Institute
for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg in the field of plant–pathogen
interactions. Since 2011, she is a group leader at the Institute for
Microbiology at Heinrich Heine University Du ¨sseldorf. Her work
focuses on fungal biotechnology using the basidiomycete Ustilago maydis. Her major interest is a novel unconventional protein secretion
pathway and its exploitation for production of heterologous proteins.
About the Editors
J. Philipp Benz (born 1977) studied biology at the TU Braunschweig
(2003). The research work for his thesis was done in the laboratory of
Nigel Crawford at UC San Diego (CA, USA). He subsequently performed
his dissertation at the LMU Munich, working in the research group of
Ju ¨rgen Soll (Department of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants)
(2009). He then returned to the USA to become a postdoctoral fellow
in the laboratory of Chris Somerville at the Energy Biosciences Institute
(UC Berkeley, CA, USA) where he started to work on filamentous fungi.
In 2014, he was appointed assistant professor for Wood Bioprocesses at
the Technical University of Munich (TUM School of Life Sciences
Weihenstephan, Holzforschung Mu ¨nchen). In 2020, he was tenured at
TUM and advanced to become associate professor for Fungal Biotechnology in Wood Science. His research group is studying the processes
used by filamentous fungi to degrade lignocellulosic biomass. Central
questions are how fungi perceive the composition of the plant biomass
on a molecular level and how they adapt their metabolism to effectively
degrade the substrate.
Kerstin Schipper (born 1980) completed her studies in biology at
Osnabru ¨ck University in 2005. For the research work of her master’s
thesis, she moved to the laboratory of Heinrich Jung at LMU Munich.
She then performed her dissertation and a short postdoctoral time
under the supervision of Regine Kahmann at the Max Planck Institute
for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg in the field of plant–pathogen
interactions. Since 2011, she is a group leader at the Institute for
Microbiology at Heinrich Heine University Du ¨sseldorf. Her work
focuses on fungal biotechnology using the basidiomycete Ustilago maydis. Her major interest is a novel unconventional protein secretion
pathway and its exploitation for production of heterologous proteins.