Team:TU-Munich/Team/Attributions

The research group at the [http://biologische-chemie.userweb.mwn.de/index.html Chair of Biological Chemistry] at TUM works in the biochemical field of protein engineering and design with its objectives set on the construction of artifical proteins with novel functions through rational as well as deductive research approaches. In this context, a range of methods facilitating the functional and structural analysis of native proteins was developed over the last years, with an increasing role of protein crystallography.

Laboratory of Prof. Dr. Helmreich

[http://www.sww.bv.tum.de Sanitary Environmental Engineering] is a horizontal discipline comprised of civil engineering, process engineering and chemistry/biology. Research and teaching include the fields of water suppy, sewage and rain water treatment, water quality and the modelling of aquatic systems. The complex scope demands fundamental as well as practical oriented research. The interdisciplinary team composition at the chair, consisting of engineers as well as natural scientists, works on the current topics of biofilm systems, dynamic simulation, process control and optimization of industrial processes, modeling of water quality, development of novel innovative industrial cleaning systems, development of holistic approaches on entire urban regions, fundamental research in the analysis of genetic information and transport and reaction mechanisms in microbial systems, rainwater, anaerobic technology and energy production.

In our interview with Prof. Helmreich, she explained us several characterization techniques to assess water quality. Furthermore she kindly provided us with water samples from sewage treatment plants.

Laboratory of Prof. Dr. Langosch

The [http://www.wzw.tum.de/biopolymere Chair for Chemistry of Biopolymers] focuses on the structural biochemistry of integral membrane proteins. Core themes are molecular interactions between membrane proteins, strucural dynamics of membrane bound protein helices, membrane protein/lipid interactions, structure/function relationships of integral membrane protein complexes (membranefusion, intermembrane proteolysis, lipidflip).

During the planning phase of our project we asked Prof. Langosch for advice concerning the design of the transmembrane region of our constructs.

Laboratory of Prof. Dr. Schwechheimer

The [http://www.sysbiol.wzw.tum.de Chair for Systems Biology of Plants] investigates a range of queries concerning the ubiquitin proteasome system of plants applying a combination of genetics, molecular biology and cell biology with both genomic and proteomic approaches. The ubiquitin proteasome system plays a central role in the correct signal transduction of the hormones auxin and gibberellin.

Together with Prof. Schwechheimer we discussed several different signal transduction pathways that could be utilised for our kill-switch. Moreover he kindly granted us access to a fluorescence microscope.

Laboratory of Prof. Dr. Reski at Freiburg University

The team at the [http://www.plant-biotech.net/ Chair for Plant Biotechnology] is working on gene expression (transcripts, proteins, protein-modifications, metabolites, sub-cellular integration) in the bryophyte model plant Physcomitrella patens (Hedw.) B.S.G. at different levels in correlation with phenotype analysis and additionally employs comparative genomics approaches. Their holistic strategy on plant development combines biology, tools for micro analysis, computational biology and modelling. The method of homologous recombination in Physcomitrella is about five orders of magnitude more efficient than in Arabidopsis and is applied to analyse novel genes by knockout and allele replacement. Functional genomics of Physcomitrella were initiated in cooperation with industrial partners to identify novel genes relevant to metabolic engineering and to abiotic stresses such as drought, salt and cold with prospects on direct transfer to crop plants for improved performance. Transgenic Physcomitrella can be grown photoautotrophically in bioreactors. The team works on the production of pharmaceutically relevant proteins in such cultures in co-operation with the university spin-off company greenovation Biotech, Freiburg.

We would especially like to thank Dr. Gertrud Wiedemann, who kindly took the time and patience to teach us the protoplast transfection method at her lab. Also a big thank you to Omar Saleh, who helped us with the osmometer and to Anja Kuberski.

Laboratory of Prof. Dr. Fussenegger at ETH Zurich

The research group at the [http://www.bsse.ethz.ch/groups/group_fussenegger/index/ Chair for Biotechnology and Bioengineering] is implementing progress in basic research to achieve generic and prototypic advances in human therapy by focusing on mammalian cells and capitalizing on an integrated interdisciplinary systems approach. Their current research initiatives include several programs interfacing with biopharmaceutical manufacturing, gene therapy and tissue engineering.

They kindly provided us with the pSH21 plasmid.

Laboratory of Dr. G.D. Wright at McMaster University

The [http://www.thewrightlab.com Wright Lab] is trying to understand fundamental aspects of how antibiotics work, their sources and how bacteria become resistant to them.

Kindly provided us with the plasmid pDEST14 which contains the genes ereA and ereB.

Laboratory of Prof. Dr. Arndt ([http://www.uni-potsdam.de/index.php?id=13895 Chair for Molecular Biotechnology] at Potsdam University)

Sven Hagen kindly provided us with the plasmids pBad-mVenus (RFC 25).

James Padolsey ([http://james.padolsey.com see his website])

We used his jQuery extension for [http://james.padolsey.com/javascript/cross-domain-requests-with-jquery/ Cross-domain AJAX requests] in the AutoAnnotator.