Die Fakultät für Chemie

Die Fakultät für Chemie
und die
Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker
gemeinsam mit
SFB 613: Physik von Einzelmolekülprozessen und
molekularer Erkennung in organischen Systemen
International Graduate School of Chemistry and
Biochemistry
laden ein zum Vortrag von
Carsten Schultz, PhD
European Molecule Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
Heidelberg
“New Molecular Tools Give New Insight in
Cell Signaling”
Our group is interested in better understanding intracellular signaling pathways. We
therefore develop tools to visualize and manipulate signaling events in living cells. In
this respect, lipids are one of the least investigated groups of biomolecules. We
therefore synthesized membrane-permeant derivatives of various phosphoinositides
to study growth factor receptor signaling. We find that the compounds stimulate
signaling events downstream of PI 3-kinase in living cells. This leads to alterations in
cell behavior, for instance in PC12 cell differentiation and neurite formation. In
addition, some of the compounds are the first small molecules known to induce
growth factor receptor endocytosis. Finally, we developed a novel method to
visualize the formation of enzyme-substrate (ES) complexes in living cells. For this
purpose, we synthesized artificial phosphorylated peptides that serve as substrates
for one of the phosphatases that limit receptor tyrosine kinase activity,
phosphotyrosine phosphatase 1B. By imaging the distribution of ES complex
formation with spatial resolution, we demonstrated that the enzyme activity was
predominantly located at internal membranes, while the enzyme seemed less active
at the plasma membrane (Yudushkin et al, Science 2007).
Universitätsgebäude, Hörsaal 3,
Donnerstag, den 10. April 2008 um 17 Uhr c.t.
gez.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Koop, Prof. Dr. Uwe Manthe, Prof. Dr. Jochen Mattay