SUMO Signaling
Prof. Stefan Müller
Stefan Müller studied pharmacy at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich before moving into life science research. After graduating, and following his genuine interest in molecular mechanisms underlying pharmacological and physiological effects, he abandoned the classical career path of a pharmacist. Instead, he took a deep dive into basic science and pursued a PhD in biochemical endocrinology at University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf. Stefan first came across SUMO during his postdoctoral studies in the group of Anne Dejean at Pasteur Institute in Paris. Ever since, the molecule that he himself once dubbed as ‘ubiquitin’s mysterious cousin’, dominated his scientific interest. In 2001, he returned to Germany to start his first independent group at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (Munich-Martinsried) in the Department of Stefan Jentsch, before accepting a professorship at the Institute of Biochemistry II (IBC2) of Goethe University Frankfurt in 2011. Since 2016, Stefan is also the acting managing director of the Gustav Embden Center for Biological Chemistry, of which IBC2 forms an integral part. Stefan is dedicated to delivering highest quality of student education. He is responsible for teaching curricula in biochemistry at the medical faculty and is leading the Frankfurt Summer School for Medical Students. Stefan investigates post-translational regulation mechanisms in mammalian cells and their impact on nuclear organization, gene expression programs and ribosome biogenesis. His general focus is on the small ubiquitin related modifier (SUMO) system, which plays a major regulatory role in these processes. As a postdoc with Anne Dejean, he was the first to discover that SUMO determines the organization of PML nuclear bodies and the degradation of the oncogenic fusion protein PML-RARα in response to the anti-leukemogenic drug arsenic. Over the past decade, his team played a major role in revealing how the dynamics of SUMO conjugation and deconjugation shapes multiprotein complexes involved in ribosome biogenesis and epigenetic regulation. A main focus of his research is on dissecting the mechanisms of SUMO-mediated protein-protein interactions. His group has elucidated how SUMO recognition domains in target proteins interact with SUMO, thereby controlling cellular signaling pathways. He revealed the regulatory roles for phosphorylation and for acetylation in this process, adding a next layer of complexity in SUMO network control.
Hannah Mende
Hannah Mende studied Molecular Biology (B. Sc.) and Biomedicine (M. Sc.) at the JGU in Mainz and obtained her degree in 2017. In her Master´s thesis she studied RNAs associated to extracellular vesicles and the involvement of RNA binding proteins in RNA sorting mechanisms. In July 2017 she joined Stefan Müller´s group at the IBCII in Frankfurt to study the involvement of SUMOylation in autophagy within the SFB 1177.
Jan Keiten-Schmitz
Jan Keiten-Schmitz was born in Freiburg, Germany. He studied Biology in Darmstadt and Heidelberg and obtained his diploma degree in 2013. In his diploma thesis he studied the TOM complex of Leishmania tarentolae.
In September 2013 he started his PhD in the lab of Stefan Müller at the IBCII. Jan is studying the SUMO-targeted E3 ubiquitin-protein ligases (STUbLs) RNF4 and RNF111.
Linda Röder
Linda grew up in Brandenburg and later in Bavaria, where she completed an apprenticeship as chemical technician at the international chemical concern Wacker Chemie AG.
She then moved to Saxony and worked as a deputy shift leader in the integrated polysilicon production system.
In 2015, she moved to Hesse and graduated from the Hessenkolleg in Wiesbaden.
Subsequently, she began her studies in medicine at the Goethe University in Frankfurt/ Main.
In autumn 2019 she started her medical doctoral thesis in the SUMO Signaling Group of Prof. Dr. Stefan Müller at the Institute of Biochemistry II, where she focuses on the role of SUMO ligases in cellular signaling pathways, also with regard to the connections to neurodegenerative diseases.
On this occasion, signaling pathways in which stress-induced SUMOylation influences stress granule assembly and disassembly, are from particular interest.
The different ligases with their diverse tasks in cellular signaling pathways represent an interesting and promising therapeutic starting point for research into pathologically persistent stress granules such as those found in neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Luca Mendler
Luca Mendler was born in Baja, Hungary. She studied medicine at the University of Szeged, Hungary and obtained her diploma in 1997. During her PhD she analyzed the molecular regulation of skeletal muscle regeneration at the University of Szeged as well as the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. After completing her PhD thesis in 2000, she kept on working on the molecular mechanisms regulating skeletal and cardiac muscle growth in the Institute of Biochemistry, Szeged (2000-2004). As an assistant professor she was teaching biochemistry for Hungarian, English and German medical students for several years as well (2004-2014). In 2008-2009 she received a scholarship of the Max Planck Society for deciphering the cell-autonomous role of the growth regulator myostatin in the heart in the Max-Planck-Insitute for Heart- and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim, Germany. In 2014 she joined to the Institute of Biochemistry II at the Goethe University, Frankfurt and has been involved in various teaching activities for medical students. She also started to work in the group of Stefan Müller analyzing the role of SUMO modification in the heart, more specifically, the possible function&redox regulation of SUMOylation during cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Paul Hotz
Paul grew up in Essen and graduated from school in Wiesbaden with general qualification for university entrance (Abitur). He studied medicine at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main and obtained the 1.Staatsexamen in summer 2017. Since September 2017 he started his MD Thesis in the SUMO signalling Group of Stefan Müller at Institute of Biochemestry II. He is now focussing on the role of SUMO system during cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury and the identification of novel SUMO targets via mass spectrometry.
