Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Gateff was born in Bulgaria. After the Second World War and the change of regime, she emigrated to Germany to enjoy the education she was denied in Bulgaria. After studying biology, chemistry and geography at the University of Munich, she followed her husband to Cleveland (OH, USA) and worked in Howard Schneidermann's laboratory. When her husband tragically died shortly afterwards, she moved with her academic mentor to UC Irvine, USA, where she completed her doctorate in 1971.
During this time, she made the groundbreaking discovery that tumors in Drosophila are of genetic origin, and she discovered the first tumor suppressor gene in fruit flies.
Prof. Dr. Gateff returned to Germany, first to the University of Freiburg, and from 1983 she was Professor of Genetics at the University of Mainz. For her
She has received numerous awards for her discoveries, which represent a milestone in cancer genetics, including the Meyenburg Prize (1988) and the German Cancer Prize (1993). Prof. Dr. Gateff lives in Mainz.
