BBA - Molecular Cell Research - Functional architecture of the cell nucleus


BBA - Molecular Cell Research
External linkFunctional Architecture of the Cell Nucleus
Edited by M.L. Schmitz and H. Herrmann
Volume 1783, Issue 11 (November 2008)

The investigation of the dynamics and organisation of the genome
is sparked by newmethods and concepts that are discussed in the first
section of this special issue. The contribution of Voss and Hager
highlights how life cell imaging using green fluorescent protein (GFP)
and an increasing number of its glowing derivatives makes it possible
to monitor the dynamic aspects of protein movement and interactions
within the nucleus. A more detailed map beyond the microscopic level
is discussed in the contribution of Simonis and de Laat. They feature
novel high-throughput techniques that enable determination of
folding and DNA contacts that occur within gene loci, thus making it
possible to understand the genomic context of gene expression. The
three-dimensional folding of chromosomal regions is only barely
understood. Karl Rohr and colleagues present and discuss an approach
that is based on statistical shape theory to analyse microscopic images
of the X chromosome.

 

M. Lienhard Schmitz
Professor of Biochemistry, University of Giessen (Germany)

Since 2006 Lienhard Schmitz is a full professor of biochemistry at the University of Giessen. He studied biology at the Universities Göttingen and Freiburg where he finished his PhD in 1990. During his postdoctoral training at the Gene Center in the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried he started his research on the transcription factor NF-kB. After his habilitation at the University of Freiburg (1996) he worked as a group leader at the German Cancer Research Center (Heidelberg). Between 2002 and 2006 he was at the department for chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Bern (Switzerland). His research interest is focussed on the analysis of inducible transcription within the nucleus and the topography of signaling cascades which regulate these events.

External linkWebsite M. Lienhard Schmitz

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Harald Herrmann
Head of the Research Group “Functional Architecture of the Cell” (B065) at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, and extraordinary Professor for Cell Biology at the Faculty for Bio Sciences of the Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg.

Dr. Harald Herrmann did his PhD in Biochemistry on ether lipid metabolism of Leishmania donovani at the University of Hamburg. After a post-doctoral research with Gerhard Wiche, University of Vienna, where he worked on high molecular weight cytoskeletal proteins, he joined the Division of Cell Biology, DKFZ, headed by Prof. Werner W. Franke. Here he was leading a group investigating the developmental and molecular biology of intermediate filament proteins. Since his habilitation in 1996, Harald Herrmann operated his own research group focusing on the assembly and structure of intermediate filament proteins and their role in so-called “filament diseases”. This research is performed in close collaboration with Prof. Ueli Aebi heading the M. E. Müller Institute for Structural Biology, University of Basel (Biozentrum). In recent years, his interest has concentrated on the extra-sarcomeric cytoskeleton of muscle as well as on architecture and function of the nuclear lamina. His group furthermore performs research on problems of intranuclear architecture together with the Division of Molecular Genetics of Prof. Peter Lichter (DKFZ).

Harald Herrmann is part of a network investigating nuclear envelope-linked rare human diseases (Laminopathies) that involves European, Israeli and American research groups.
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