Torsten received his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute, and joined the faculty of Department of Cell and Tissue Biology in the UCSF School of Dentistry in 2005. Torsten is a member of the Biomedical Sciences, Tetrad, Biophysics and Bioengineering, and Oral and Craniofacial Sciences Graduate Programs and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research interests include molecular mechanisms of mitosis, microtubule dynamics, and high precision optical control of protein activities inside cells. He has extensive expertise in designing, building, and operating advanced optical imaging systems.