Kai Simons

In 2012 he started-up a biotech company Lipotype GmbH, where he is a CEO.

In 1999 he took part in setting up ELSO (later incorporated into EMBO), which later he presided over.

He was one of the initiators of establishing and building Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden (Germany), where he moved. Formally from 1998 (beginning of MPI-CBG construction) and practically from 2000 he was one of five institute's directors and also a group leader there Since 2006 he is a director emeritus.

Considering his work from years 1996–2007 tracked until May 2009, Simons was 12. in the list of the most frequently cited scientists in the field cell biology with 90 articles and 16,299 citations.

In these studies, he described the role of the trans-Golgi network (TGN) in protein and lipid sorting according to their destination. In his works from 1988, together with Gerit van Meer, Simons proposed the existence of lipid microdomains in cell membranes for the first time. Such microdomains differ in their composition from the surrounding membrane and have special functions. Simons coined the term 'lipid rafts' to describe these microdomains. This concept was developed over the years to be presented more fully in 1997 in Nature journal by Simons and Ikonen. This paper became one of the most frequently cited works in the field of membrane research. Other Simons' paper, on role of lipid rafts in the signal transduction is second highest cited work and Simons is fourth highest cited scientist in the field of signal transduction. Kai Simons was also recognized by ISI Web of Knowledge, as one of the most cited scientist ever.

In 1975 Simons came to Heidelberg (Germany), as one of the EMBL group leaders. Together with Ari Helenius he helped to develop EMBL, headed at this time by John Kendrew. In years 1982–1998 Simons was a coordinator of the Cell Biology Program there. During this time he for the first time presented the concept of lipid rafts.

After completing his MD in 1964, he began a postdoctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University in New York City where he worked between 1966 and 1967 on blood serum protein polymorphism. He returned to Helsinki in 1967, where he began working as a Junior Investigator for the Finnish Medical Research Council at the University of Helsinki. He became a group leader in 1972 and was a biochemistry professor in 1971–79 at the medical faculty of this university At first, he continued his work on serum proteins. Next, together with Leevi Kääriäinen and Ossi Renkonen, he started a research team – later joined by Ari Helenius, his first PhD student and later a post doctoral researcher who became Simons' brother-in-law. After a one-month stay in MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge, the group started investigating a Semliki Forest virus, introduced to Simons by Kääriäinenem.

Kai Simons (born 24 May 1938) is a Finnish professor of biochemistry and cell biology and physician living and working in Germany. He introduced the concept of lipid rafts, as well as coined the term trans-Golgi network and proposed its role in protein and lipid sorting. The co-founder and co-organizer of EMBO, ELSO, Simons initiated the foundation of MPI-CBG, where he acted as a director (1998–2006) and a group-leader (until 2012). He is the co-founder and co-owner of Lipotype GmbH.