Konstanze F. Winklhofer is a cell biologist interested in the pathological mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases. Her research is focused on the regulation of protein homeostasis, the involvement of mitochondria in immune signaling and the role played by ubiquitin at the interface between stress protection and immune responses. Dr. Winklhofer studied pharmacy at the University of Regensburg and medicine at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) Munich, Mayo Medical School in Rochester and the University of Zurich in Switzerland. She performed her doctoral studies in molecular virology at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, and the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, before becoming a group leader at the LMU department of metabolic biochemistry and at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Munich. She is currently chair of the molecular cell biology department at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.