Current Members


Markus Piotrowski

Picture of Markus Piotrowski

Grade: Dr. habil.

Position: Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer (Privatdozent und akademischer Rat)

Function: Head of the Lab

Telephone: xx49-(0)234-32/24290

e-mail: Markus.Piotrowski@ruhr-uni-bochum.de



Anna Schulten

Picture of Anna Schulten

Grade: Bachelor of Science

Function: Master Student

Telephone: xx49-(0)234-32/24287

e-mail: Anna.Schulten@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: Anna is working on nitrilase-1 homologs in Arabidopsis halleri and Arabidopsis lyrata.



Tanja Schmeiduch

Picture of Tanja Schmeiduch

Grade: Bachelor of Science

Function: Master Student

Telephone: xx49-(0)234-32/24287

e-mail: Tanja.Schmeiduch@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: Tanja is working on the nitrilase/nitrile hydratase ratio of different nitrilases.



Sabine Schönfelder

Picture of Sabine Schönfelder

Function: Technician

Telephone: xx49-(0)234-32/24309



Former Members


Kerstin Redegeld

Picture of Kerstin Redegeld

Grade: Master of Science

e-mail: Kerstin.Redegeld@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: In her Master thesis Kerstin developed successfully tools to grow and transform Capsella rubella. In her PhD thesis she was working on glucosinolate catabolism in this plant.



Morizt Hahn

Picture of Moritz Hahn

Grade: Dipl. Biol.

e-mail: Moritz.Hahn@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: Moritz was working on nitrilase 3 homologs in Arabidopsis thaliana and Capsella rubella.



Inga Trompetter

Picture of Inga Trompetter

Grade: Dr.

e-mail: Inga.Trompetter@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: In her diploma thesis Inga was working on nitrilases from grasses (family: Poaceae), characterizing the three nitrilases from Sorghum bicolor. She received her diploma in March of 2007. In her PhD thesis she adressed the question if and how the NIT1 group nitrilases of the Brassicaceae are involved in the glucosinolate catabolism of these plants.



Jeremy Woodward

Picture of Jeremy Woodward

Grade: PhD

e-mail: JeremyDavidWoodward@gmail.com

Project: Jeremy was a visiting scientist from the University of Cape Town. In our lab he is working on the elucidation of the structure of plant nitrilases and the structure/function relationship of these enzymes.



Sabine Griemert

Picture of Sabine Griemert

Grade: Dipl. Biol.

e-mail: Sabine.Griemert@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: Sabine was working on nitrilase 4 homologs in plants which harbour cyanogenic glycosides or nitriles as secondary metabolites to analyze if these plants have evolved new nitrilase activities.



Wolfgang Lange

Picture of Wolfgang Lange

Grade: Dipl. Biol.

e-mail: Wolfgang.Lange@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: Wolfgang was in(wolf)ed in elucidating the function of several methionin-sulfoxid reductases of Arabidopsis thaliana.



Thomas Piofczyk

Picture of Thomas Piofczyk

Grade: Dipl. Biol.

e-mail: Thomas.Piofczyk@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: Thomas was working on β-glucosidases from Arabidopsis thaliana, trying to express them recombinantly in Nicotiana benthamiana. He is now making his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (Colon).



Izabela Ruduś

Picture of Izabela Ruduś

Grade: Ph.D.

e-mail: izadfr@sus.univ.szczecin.pl

Project: Izabela was a postdoctoral fellow funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). She made her PhD at the University of Szczecin working on somatic embryogenesis in Medicago sativa. In our lab she investigated the involvment of coronatine-induced genes on glucosinolate biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.



Frank Wüst

Picture of Frank Wüst

Grade: M. Sc.

e-mail: FrankWuest@gmx.de

Project: Frank was working on polyamine biosynthesis in archea. In the past we have analyzed the polyamine biosynthesis enzymes agmatine iminohydrolase and N-carbamoylputrescine amidohydrolase from plants and chloroviruses. Frank cloned and analyzed these enzymes from a thermophilic archeon.



Tim Janowitz

Picture of Tim Janowitz

Grade: Dr. rer. nat.

e-mail: Tim.Janowitz@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: In his diploma thesis, Tim was working on the two polyamine-biosynthesis enzymes agmatine iminohydrolase (AIH) and N-carbamoylputrescine amidohydrolase (CPA) of Arabidopsis thaliana. Since his PhD thesis he was working on nitrilases, especially on the so-called NIT1-group nitrilases which are currently only known from plants of the family of Brassicaceae. He was looking for new NIT1 genes in these plants and tried to evaluate the evolution of these genes and the involvement of the encoded enzymes in glucosinolate metabolism. Tim received his PhD in December 2006. He left our lab in Dezember 2007 and is now working at University Münster.



Julia Volmer

Picture of Julia Volmer

Grade: Dr. rer. nat.

e-mail: Julia.Volmer@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Project: Julia started her PhD thesis on the role of NIT4 in cyanide detoxification in Juli 2001 as Julia Förster, but was then transformed to Julia Volmer. She was looking for NIT4-knockout plants in Arabidopsis thaliana and characterized these plants and NIT4 overexpressing plants regarding the cyanide metabolism. She received her PhD in June 2005.



Miriam Korte

Picture of Miriam Korte

Grade: Dipl. Biol.

e-mail: Miri.Korte@web.de

Project: Miriam was working on the NIT4 homologs of dicot plants in 2007. She was interested in the reaction mechanism of these enzymes because they produce two different products, aspartic acid and asparagine, from the substrate cyanoalanine. She performed experiments with mutated versions of these enzymes and tried to crystallize one of the NIT4 homologs.



Sascha Baumann

Picture of Sascha Baumann

Grade: Dipl. Biol.

e-mail: Sascha.Baumann@mpi-dortmund.mpg.de

Project: Sascha did his diploma thesis in 2004/2005 on polyamine biosynthesis enzymes from giant chlorella viruses. He is now a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund.



Roland Jenrich

Picture of Roland Jenrich

Grade: Dipl. Biol.

e-mail: jenrich@biotek.de

Project: Roland did his diploma thesis at the same time as Sascha. He was working on possible posttranslational modifications of nitrilases from Arabidopsis thaliana and Sorghum bicolor. He is now working in the company Biotek.



Adrianne Sander

Picture of Adrianne Sander

e-mail: Adrianne.Sander@gmx.de

Project: Adrianne did a practial state exam 2003/2004 in our laboratory working on two polyamine biosynthesis enzymes of Paramecium bursaria Chlorella Virus-1. She is now working as a teacher for biology and mathematics.



Anirban Banerjee

Picture of Anirban Banerjee

Grade: Ph.D.

e-mail: anir_banerjee@rediffmail.com

Project: Anirban did his PhD thesis at the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology in the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Punjab, India. He received a sholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for 6 months to work in our lab. In this time he sequenced and cloned a nitrilase from Pseudomonas putida. After that he was working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Proteomics and Genomic Research (Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa).