Current Members
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
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
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
Function: Technician
Telephone: xx49-(0)234-32/24309
Former Members
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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).