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Stephan Diekmann
Stephan Diekmann

Scientists

Peter Hemmerich

Christian Hoischen

Shiva Marthandan

PhD Students

Volker Döring

Karolin Klement

Sandra Münch

Diploma Students

Carsten Dornblut

Anja Eskat

Sindy Giebe

Sven Rudolphi

Jiaying Wang, Master Student

Technicians

Sabine Gallert

Marianne Koch

Sabine Ohndorf

Sylke Pfeifer



 

Diekmann Laboratory

Molecular biology

Functional dynamics of subnuclear complexes

Cellular functions of central importance are organised and controlled in the cell nucleus. Our research is focussed on the elucidation of structure/function relationships of the mammalian centromere/kinetochore complex and promyelocytic leukemia nuclear bodies.

 

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Projects

  • The centromere/kinetochore complex

    • The centromere is a chromosomal substructure responsible for high fidelity segregation of the genetic material during cell division. The kinetochore protein complex settles at the centromere and attaches the complex to spindle microtubuli during mitosis. Malfunction of this structure has been implicated in aneuploidy, cancer and senescence. We are studying molecular processes underlying centromere function by (i) biochemically analysing known centromere proteins and their interactions and by (ii) investigating their function in time and space in living cells (Stephan Diekmann).

     

  • The anaphase promoting complex

    • One regulator of cell division is the anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C). Failure of this mitotic spindle checkpoint regulated complex causes improper sister chromatid separation. The APC/C consists of 13 known subunits and acts as ubiquitin ligase defining protein targets for proteasomal degradation. Current knowledge on the interaction between APC/C and the mitotic spindle is limited. We want to define the interaction partners and study molecular interactions on the molecular level in vitro and in living cells. (Christian Hoischen)

     

  • Nuclear architecture and PML nuclear bodies

    • The cell nucleus is a highly organized organelle that stores and maintains the genome of every cell. Promyelocytic leukemia (PML) nuclear bodies represent multifunctional supramolecular complexes within the nucleus involved in tumor suppression, cell growth control, gene expression, DNA repair and cellular senscence. By analyzing the dynamics of nuclear proteins and PML complexes in living cells we gain new insights into the regulation of RNA transcription, DNA replication and DNA repair (Peter Hemmerich).

 

Recent selected publications

  • Hoischen C, Bussiek M, Langowski J, Diekmann S. (2008) Escherichia coli low-copy-number plasmid R1 centromere parC forms a U-shaped complex with its binding protein ParR. Nucleic Acids Res, 36, 607-615. [PubMed]
  • Ibrahim B, Diekmann S, Schmitt E, Dittrich P. (2008) In-silico modeling of the mitotic spindle assembly checkpoint. PLoS One, 3, e1555. [PubMed]
  • Orthaus S, Biskup C, Hoffmann B, Hoischen C, Ohndorf S, Benndorf K, Diekmann S. (2008) Assembly of the inner kinetochore proteins CENP-A and CENP-B in living human cells. Chembiochem, 9, 77-92. [PubMed]
  • Schmiedeberg L, Weisshart K, Diekmann S, Meyer Zu Hoerste G, Hemmerich P. (2004) High- and low-mobility populations of HP1 in heterochromatin of mammalian cells. Mol Biol Cell, 15, 2819-2833. [PubMed]
  • Wieland G, Orthaus S, Ohndorf S, Diekmann S, Hemmerich P. (2004) Functional complementation of human centromere protein A (CENP-A) by Cse4p from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Cell Biol, 24, 6620-6630. [PubMed]

 

Last update: March 15, 2011
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