Michael Boutros studied biology and biochemistry in Aachen and Witten/Herdecke and in New York. He conducted research for his doctorate at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, followed by a master’s degree in public administration at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. After a postdoctoral stay at Harvard Medical School, he moved to Heidelberg in 2003 as a junior research group leader in the DFG’s Emmy Noether Program. Since 2008, he has been full Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University and Head of Division at DKFZ.

He is the spokesperson of the Research and Strategy Commission of Heidelberg University and the DKFZ’s research program „Functional and Structural Genomics“. Michael Boutros is director of the Marsilius-Kolleg at Heidelberg University and Speaker of the Collaborative Research Center 1324. Since 2019, he is the deputy scientific director of DKFZ. His research interests are on the systematic analysis of signaling pathways implicated im development and tumorigenesis. He is an elected member of the Heidelberg Akademie der Wissenschaften and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.