Posted by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfram Saenger passed away on 16 February 2026. He was a German biochemist and protein scientist renowned for his pioneering work in nucleic acid crystallography and structural biology.
He completed his studies in chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt in 1965, earning his doctorate. After a postdoctoral position at Harvard University in Boston, USA, he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen. In 1981, he accepted a professorship at the Institute of Crystallography at the Free University of Berlin, where he conducted research until his retirement in 2009.
Wolfram Saenger’s research focused on the crystal structure analysis of inclusion compounds, structural biological investigations of proteins and nucleic acids, and theoretical aspects of biological structure formation. In addition to numerous journal articles, Wolfram Saenger published fundamental textbooks on his research findings, which remain influential in his field to this day.
In recognition of his research, Wolfram Saenger was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 1985 and admitted to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1994. In recognition of his scientific achievements, he was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and the Humboldt Research Prize in 1988, the Gay-Lussac-Humboldt Prize in 1994, and the Carl Hermann Medal in 2004.
His major contributions to the field of cyclodextrin research include the following:
Manor, P. C.; Saenger, W.
Water Molecule in Hydrophobic Surroundings: Structure of α-Cyclodextrin-Hexahydrate (C₆H₁₀O₅)₆·6H₂O.
Nature 1972, 237, 392–393. https://doi.org/10.1038/237392a0
Manor, P. C.; Saenger, W.
Topography of Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complexes. III. Crystal and Molecular Structure of Cyclohexaamylose Hexahydrate.
Journal of the American Chemical Society 1974, 96, 3630–3639. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00818a042
Noltemeyer, M.; Saenger, W.
X-ray Studies of Linear Polyiodide Chains in α-Cyclodextrin Channels and a Model for the Starch–Iodine Complex.
Nature 1976, 259, 629–632. https://doi.org/10.1038/259629a0
Wood, D. J.; Hruska, F. E.; Saenger, W.
Proton NMR Study of the Inclusion of Aromatic Molecules in α-Cyclodextrin.
Journal of the American Chemical Society 1977, 99, 1735–1740. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00448a009
Lindner, K.; Saenger, W.
β-Cyclodextrin Dodecahydrate: Crowding of Water Molecules within a Hydrophobic Cavity.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 1978, 17, 694–695. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.197806941
Saenger, W.
Stereochemistry of Circularly Closed Oligosaccharides: Cyclodextrin Structure and Function.
Biochemical Society Transactions 1983, 11, 136–139. https://doi.org/10.1042/bst0110136