Hans-Jürgen Kreienkamp studied chemistry with a focus on biochemistry in Münster and Frankfurt/Main. He obtained his PhD from the Institute of Biochemistry at Freie Universität Berlin, working on the structure of neurotransmitter receptors. He continued this work as a PostDoc at the Department of Pharmacology of the University of California in San Diego (UCSD) from 1992 – 1994. Since 1994 he is a group leader at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, first at the Institute for Cellular Biochemistry and Clinical Neurobiology, and since 2005 at the Institute for Human Genetics. His scientific focus is the elucidation of pathological mechanisms of inherited neurodevelopmental disorders.