Manfred Schartl completed his Ph.D. in genetics in 1980. He then continued
to work in the laboratory of Fritz Anders in Giessen, using Xiphophorus as a
model for melanoma. In 1985, after his postdoctoral training at the National
Institutes of Health in Bethesda, he became a junior group leader at the
Gene Centre of the Max-Planck Institute in Martinsried. Since 1991, he has
been a full professor of biochemistry at the Biocenter of the University of
Wuerzburg. His interest has always been to combine molecular biology with
studies on small fish model species. His main research topics include
molecular biology of cancer development using the Xiphophorus model,
evolution of sex determination with a special focus on medaka, and the
establishment of transgenic and gene-knockout technologies in fish.