Cellular Organization

Studying temporally and spatially controlled molecular interactions to understand and optimize cell cycle, cellular differentiation, and multicellular aggregates.

Projects in this research area focus on the spatial and temporal dynamics of fundamental cellular regulation mechanisms. Results shall pave the way to construct synthetic circuits leading e.g. to targeted modifications of cellular processes such as cell cycle, cell division, cell differentiation and cell polarity for diverse biotechnological applications. Of special interest are also the regulatory networks controling these interlinked cellular processes. A first goal is to determine the topologies of the regulatory networks. The second goal is to scrutinize the spatial and temporal dynamics of both the localization and interactions of polypeptides involved in these networks. One of the future goals is the creation of synthetic modules that could be used to regulate the fundamental cellular processes in minimal cells. Laboratory based approaches are constantly accompanied by mathematical modeling.