Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbriggen, Born in 1979, has been head of the Institute of Synthetic Biology since October 2015, a specialist in the field of molecular biology, organic chemistry, engineering, nanobiotechnology and information technology, at the HHU in Düsseldorf and is a member of the excellence cluster CEPLAS. He works with his team to develop and apply innovative synthetic biology and optogenetics techniques to understand signal processes and regulatory networks under temporal and spatial control. The research focus is on the study of light and the hormonal signaling pathways in plants, with the aim of developing so-called optical switches. These allow activation and deactivation by light of a certain wavelength control of biological processes in microorganisms,