# Jörg Vogel
**Jörg Vogel** is a German molecular biologist and infection biologist who studies how regulatory RNAs control gene expression in bacteria and during infection. He is the founding director of the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) and director of the Institute of Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB) at the [University of Würzburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-wurzburg), Germany.[1](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/about/team/detail/person/joerg-vogel/) He is considered a pioneer in applying and developing high-throughput sequencing methods to analyze individual infected cells and interactions between pathogenic bacteria and their hosts.[1](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/about/team/detail/person/joerg-vogel/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Current roles | Founding director of HIRI (since 2017); director of IMIB, University of Würzburg (since 2009)[1](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/about/team/detail/person/joerg-vogel/) |
| Field | RNA biology of bacterial infection; bacterial small RNAs and RNA-binding proteins[1](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/about/team/detail/person/joerg-vogel/) |
| Training | PhD, Humboldt University Berlin, 1999 (Group II intron splicing); postdoc, Uppsala University 2000–2001; EMBO fellow, Hebrew University Jerusalem 2002–2003[2](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/03290000/2022/Vogel/2023_09_Vogel_Biosketch.pdf) |
| Signature work | Small RNA activation of a sugar phosphatase mRNA (Cell, 2013)[3](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.03.003); dual RNA-seq of host–pathogen interactions (Nature, 2016)[4](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16547) |
| Major honors | Leibniz Prize 2017 (€2.5 million); EMBO member 2011; Leopoldina 2013; Feldberg Prize 2019; Bavarian Order of Maximilian 2025[5](https://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/member-list/detail/joerg-vogel) • [6](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/news/detail/news/leibniz-prize-awarded-to-rna-researcher/) |
| Recent direction | Programmable antisense oligomers for phage functional genomics (Nature, 2025)[7](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09499-6) |
## Career
Vogel studied biochemistry at Humboldt University Berlin, with an undergraduate year at [Imperial College London](https://www.edgepedia.org/imperial-college-london) in 1994–1995, and completed his Diplom in 1997.[2](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/03290000/2022/Vogel/2023_09_Vogel_Biosketch.pdf) According to an RNA Society spotlight, he earned his doctorate in 1999 at Humboldt University under Prof. Thomas Börner, characterizing the splicing of Group II introns in higher plant chloroplasts.[2](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/03290000/2022/Vogel/2023_09_Vogel_Biosketch.pdf) • [8](https://www.rnasociety.org/spotlight/professor-jorg-vogel/)
His move into bacterial RNA regulation came through postdoctoral training. In 2000 he joined Prof. Gerhart Wagner's laboratory at [Uppsala University](https://www.edgepedia.org/uppsala-university) to search for new riboregulators in bacteria, and in 2002 he moved to the [Hebrew University of Jerusalem](https://www.edgepedia.org/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem) as an EMBO fellow, studying small RNAs in *Escherichia coli*.[2](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/03290000/2022/Vogel/2023_09_Vogel_Biosketch.pdf) • [8](https://www.rnasociety.org/spotlight/professor-jorg-vogel/) In 2004 he established an Independent Junior Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, which he led until 2010.[1](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/about/team/detail/person/joerg-vogel/)
In 2009 he became Full Professor and Director of IMIB at the University of Würzburg, and spokesman of its Research Center for Infectious Diseases (ZINF).[6](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/news/detail/news/leibniz-prize-awarded-to-rna-researcher/) Since 2017 he has been the founding director of HIRI, a Helmholtz institute devoted to RNA-based infection research on the Würzburg campus.[1](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/about/team/detail/person/joerg-vogel/) Beyond his institutes, he became President of the European Academy of Microbiology in 2021 and joined the scientific advisory board of the DFG NGS Competence Centers.[2](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/03290000/2022/Vogel/2023_09_Vogel_Biosketch.pdf)
## Bacterial small RNAs and Hfq
Vogel's core contribution lies in bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs). A central player is Hfq, a protein first identified in *E. coli* in the late 1960s as an essential host factor of the [RNA bacteriophage Qβ](https://www.edgepedia.org/bacteriophage-qbeta), from which its name derives. Hfq facilitates the pairing of small RNAs with their target mRNAs, affecting the translation and turnover rates of specific transcripts and enabling complex post-transcriptional networks.[9](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4615618/) Its ring-like oligomeric architecture presents two non-equivalent binding surfaces capable of multiple RNA interactions, which explains how one protein chaperones many different sRNA–mRNA pairs.[9](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4615618/)
His group's work also showed that sRNAs can activate, not only repress, gene expression. In a 2013 *Cell* study on *Salmonella*, the glucose-responsive sRNA SgrS was found to activate synthesis of the phosphatase YigL by selectively stabilizing a decay intermediate of the dicistronic *pldB*–*yigL* mRNA, with the ribonuclease RNase E essential to this activation, a mechanism that regulates glucose homeostasis.[3](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.03.003)
## Dual RNA-seq and RNA methods
In 2011, Vogel and colleagues proposed "dual RNA-seq" in *Nature Reviews Microbiology*: measuring gene expression changes in both the pathogen and the host simultaneously, as a step beyond single-organism transcriptomics.[10](https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro2852) Within five years the technique had been applied across a range of infection models.[11](https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1006033)
The 2016 *Nature* proof of concept profiled RNA expression simultaneously in pathogen and host during *Salmonella enterica* serovar Typhimurium infection and identified the PhoP-activated small RNA PinT, which temporally controls invasion-associated effectors and intracellular survival genes and is linked to host JAK-STAT signaling.[4](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16547) A 2018 review by Vogel's group argued that bacterial [RNA-binding protein](https://www.edgepedia.org/rna-binding-protein) research was entering a new era, as RNA-sequencing-based methods now allow RBP activity to be studied globally in vivo.[12](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-018-0049-5)
## Representative work
- **Small RNA-Mediated Activation of Sugar Phosphatase mRNA Regulates Glucose Homeostasis** (*Cell*, 2013). Showed that the sRNA SgrS activates synthesis of the phosphatase YigL in *Salmonella* by stabilizing a decay intermediate of the *pldB*–*yigL* mRNA, an RNase E-dependent activation mechanism controlling glucose homeostasis. [DOI](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.03.003)
- **Dual RNA-seq unveils noncoding RNA functions in host–pathogen interactions** (*Nature*, 2016). Simultaneous pathogen–host transcriptomics during *Salmonella* infection, identifying the sRNA PinT and its link to host JAK-STAT signaling. [DOI](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16547)
- **Single-cell RNA-seq: advances and future challenges** (*Nucleic Acids Research*, 2014). [DOI](https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gku555)
## Honors and recognition
Vogel was elected to EMBO in 2011, received the DGHM Senior Scientist Award in 2011 and the VAAM Research Award in 2010, and was elected to the [German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina](https://www.edgepedia.org/german-national-academy-of-sciences-leopoldina) and the American Academy of Microbiology in 2013.[2](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/03290000/2022/Vogel/2023_09_Vogel_Biosketch.pdf) • [5](https://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/member-list/detail/joerg-vogel) In 2017 he received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the [German Research Foundation](https://www.edgepedia.org/german-research-foundation), considered the German equivalent of the Nobel Prize and carrying 2.5 million euros.[6](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/news/detail/news/leibniz-prize-awarded-to-rna-researcher/) Later honors include the Feldberg Prize for German-British scientific exchange in 2019, an honorary professorship for [RNA biology](https://www.edgepedia.org/rna-biology) at Imperial College London (2016–), and the Bavarian Order of Maximilian for Science and Art in 2025.[2](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/03290000/2022/Vogel/2023_09_Vogel_Biosketch.pdf) • [5](https://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/member-list/detail/joerg-vogel)
## Current directions
In September 2025, Vogel's group published in *Nature* a non-genetic approach to phage functional genomics: exogenous delivery of programmable antisense oligomers (ASOs), typically 9–12 nucleobases long, that silence genes of both DNA and RNA phages by binding the ribosome binding site of target mRNAs.[7](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09499-6) The method works without genetic manipulation of the phage. A knockdown screen of the nucleus-forming jumbo phage ΦKZ infecting *Pseudomonas aeruginosa* identified the RNase H-like protein ΦKZ155 (Nlp2) as acting at a major decision point linking formation of the protective phage nucleus to phage genome amplification.[7](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09499-6) Vogel framed the therapeutic angle plainly: harnessing phages against increasing antibiotic resistance "would be a game changer".[13](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/newsroom/news/detail/news/phage-research-hacked/)
## References
1. [Prof. Jörg Vogel, Helmholtz HIRI profile](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/about/team/detail/person/joerg-vogel/)
2. [Prof. Dr. Jörg Vogel, Biosketch, University of Würzburg (September 2023)](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/03290000/2022/Vogel/2023_09_Vogel_Biosketch.pdf)
3. [Small RNA-Mediated Activation of Sugar Phosphatase mRNA Regulates Glucose Homeostasis (Cell, 2013)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2013.03.003)
4. [Dual RNA-seq unveils noncoding RNA functions in host–pathogen interactions (Nature, 2016)](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16547)
5. [Leopoldina member detail, Jörg Vogel](https://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/member-list/detail/joerg-vogel)
6. [Leibniz Prize awarded to RNA researcher, University of Würzburg news](https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/news/detail/news/leibniz-prize-awarded-to-rna-researcher/)
7. [Programmable antisense oligomers for phage functional genomics (Nature, 2025)](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09499-6)
8. [Professor Jörg Vogel, RNA Society spotlight](https://www.rnasociety.org/spotlight/professor-jorg-vogel/)
9. [Hfq and its constellation of RNA (Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2011)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4615618/)
10. [Dual RNA-seq of pathogen and host (Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2011)](https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro2852)
11. [Resolving host–pathogen interactions by dual RNA-seq (PLoS Pathogens, 2016)](https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1006033)
12. [RNA-binding proteins in bacteria (Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2018)](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-018-0049-5)
13. [Phage research: Hacked!, HIRI press release, 10 September 2025](https://www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/newsroom/news/detail/news/phage-research-hacked/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Life and health scientists › Life scientists › Researchers in immunology, microbiology, and virology › Bacterial genetics and physiology*
*Initially written Sep 20, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Sep 25, 2026*
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