Sonja Lorenz leads an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences (MPI NAT) inGöttingen/Germany. She received a PhD from the University of Oxford/UK, followed by postdoctoral research with John Kuriyan at UC Berkeley, CA/USA. Her laboratory combines structural, biochemical and cell-based approaches to determine specificity mechanisms in the ubiquitin system. Their particular focus is on E2 and HECT-type E3 enzymes as well as the crosstalk of the ubiquitin system with other posttranslational modifications. Sonja Lorenz was accepted into the DFG Emmy Noether and the EMBO Young Investigator programs.