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Funded by:

BIOSS Area B: Supra-cellular Signalling Pathways

 

During development, growth, and regeneration, complex signalling environments recruit cells from stem cell pools, direct their differentiation paths, and organise them in 3D into specialized organ structures. Research in BIOSS-B focuses on molecular nature, organization, and logic of these signalling systems.

 

 

BIOSS-B1 analyses how individual cells sense the signals from their environment and translate this information into cell fate decisions. A focus is on stem cell populations and their niches.

BIOSS-B2 investigates stem-cell like proliferative populations in cancer with a focus on tumour development, both at the intracellular level of oncogenic kinase signalling, as well as at the supracellular level of cell-cell communication within tumours.

To organise into a tissue, cells also need to communicate with each other in space and time. The integration of spatial and temporal signalling during differentiation and organ morphogenesis is the subject of BIOSS-B3. Specifically, it will be investigated how biochemical and biophysical inputs from the environment are integrated by cells to adopt a certain behaviour. 

BIOSS-B combines analytical approaches with synthetic signalling systems to verify hypotheses and to advance understanding of control mechanisms both in animal and plant systems. Together with BIOSS-C, we design artificial microenvironments to control stem cell behaviour and cell differentiation. BIOSS-B will advance understanding of plant growth control and bring new ideas to regenerative medicine and control of malignant growth.

 

Funded projects within BIOSS B:

• Signals and Control Mechanisms regulating Axial Stem Cells required for Posterior Body Axis Elongation during Mouse Embryogenesis (Dr. Sebstian Arnold)
• Microenvironment remodeling by the degradome of breast cancer stem cells (PD Dr. Thomas Reinheckel, Prof. Christoph Peters, Dr. Oliver Schilling)
• Controlling cell polarization, directional migration and wound healing by highprecision pH manipulation (Prof. Matias Simons)
• Regeneration of vertebrate kidneys (Prof. Gerd Walz)
• Impact of the active Nlrp3 inflammasome on signalling in regulatory T cells shaping the tumour microenvironment (PD Dr. Robert Zeiser)
• Interaction partners of the oncogenic transcriptional repressor ZEB1 as targets to interfere with its oncogenic functions (Prof. Thomas Brabletz)
• Implementation of the BIOSS Cancer Monitor (Dr. Tilman Brummer, Dr. Roland Nitschke, Prof. Christoph Peters, Prof. Wilfried Weber)
• Identification of kinases driving the metastatic behaviour of breast cancer (Dr. Tilman Brummer, PD Dr. Thomas Reinheckel, Prof. Christoph Peters)
• Stable synthetic optical switches for optogenetics and optophysiology in zebrafish (Prof. Wolfgang Driever, Prof. Wilfried Weber, Jun. Prof. Dr. Olaf Ronneberger, Dr. Roland Nitschke)
• Mouse models for inducible expression of oncogenic, ITAM-containing viral proteins (Prof. Hassan Jumaa)
• Mathematical modeling of the self organizing Arabidopsis shoot meristem (Prof. Thomas Laux)
• The role of GSK-3 mediated phosphorylation of the acetyltransferase Tip60 for apoptosis and the DNA damage response (Dr. Ulrich Maurer, Dr. Tilman Brummer)
• Dynamics of morphogen gradient formation (Dr. Giorgos Pyrowolakis)

 

Investigators BIOSS B:

Prof. Wolfgang Driever, Jun. Prof. Dr. Virginie Lecaudey, Prof. Christoph Peters (Coordinators BIOSS B)

Dr. Sebastian Arnold, Prof. Marlene Bartos, Prof. Ralf Baumeister, Prof. Christoph Borner, Prof. Thomas Brabletz, Prof. Thomas Brox, Prof. Leena Bruckner-Tuderman, Dr. Tilman Brummer, Prof. Karsten Buse, Dr. Christine Dierks, Prof. Andreas Diefenbach, Prof. Andreas Hecht, Prof. Hassan Jumaa, Prof. Albrecht Kramer-Zucker, Prof. Kerstin Krieglstein, Prof. Wolfgang Kühn, Prof. Silke Lassmann, Prof. Thomas Laux, Dr. Maria Manukyan, Dr. Ulrich Maurer, Dr. David Medgyesi,  Dr. Roland Nitschke, Dr. Daria Onichtchouk, Prof. Oliver Opitz, Prof. Klaus Palme, Prof. Marco Prinz, Dr. Jan Pruszak, Dr. Giorgos Pyrowolakis, PD Dr. Thomas Reinheckel, Prof. Michael Reth, Prof. Alexander Rohrbach, Jun. Prof. Dr. Olaf Ronneberger, Dr. Günter Roth, Dr. Oliver Schilling, Prof. Prasad Shastri, Prof. Matias Simons, Prof. Jens Timmer, Prof. Pascal Tomakidi, Jun. Prof. Max Ulbrich, Prof. Gerald Urban, Prof. Gerd Walz, Prof. Wilfried Weber, Dr. Robert Zeiser