Office:	Department of Physics & Astronomy, AN Bourns Building –
	Email:	rheinsm@mcmaster.ca
	Phone:	905-525-9140 ext. 23134
	Office Hours:

Dr. Maikel Rheinstädter, who is teaching ARTSSCI 2D06 / Physics in 2024-25, is Professor of Biophysics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and a University Scholar at McMaster University. He received his PhD from Saarland University and was a post-doc with the Research Centre Jülich and a staff scientist at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France. After spending a research leave at the University of Göttingen, he became an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and joined McMaster in 2009.

Dr. Rheinstädter’s research focuses on the field of membrane biophysics and the role of membranes in infectious and neurodegenerative diseases. He is also Director of the Origins of Life Laboratory at McMaster and an Associate Director of the Origins Institute, where his group investigates the formation of RNA and proto cells under prebiotic, early Earth, and early planetary conditions. Current research includes the development of blood-based vaccines and antibiotics. He is a founder of Synth-Med Biotechnology (www.synth-med.com), a spinoff company that develops membrane-based sensors to detect bacteria in food and water.