The paper “A novel interaction between dengue virus nonstructural protein 1 and the NS4A-2K-4B precursor is required for viral RNA replication but not for formation of the membranous replication organelle” can be found here.
Fully automated live-cell imaging microscope. Measures 3 channels of up to six 96-well plates over multiple days.
A time lapse of VSV-GFP (MOI 10) infected HeLa cells.
Mass spectrometry based analyses typically lead to identification of hundreds of candidate proteins with potential to be involved in diverse virus-related processes. The incucyte S3 live cell imaging system allows to monitor up to 584 parallel conditions in a time-resolved and single-cell manner and – for instance – delivers accurate virus growth rates over time for these individual conditions. This enables us to conduct arrayed knockdown, knockout, overexpression or drug screens to link functional consequences to identified candidate proteins. For us, this is a life-transforming experience – we’re looking forward to many exciting experiments and lots of terabytes of images to crunch!
Congratulations to Philipp Hubel and co-authors – our work on the innate immune network got published in Nature Immunology!
The body’s defense strategies against viral infections are as diverse as the attacks themselves. We conducted a survey to systematically investigate the interactions of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), which are at the center of coordinating the antiviral immune response. Through integrating data obtained by affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry (AP/MS), published datasets and functional validation experiments, we found many unknown interactions of ISGs, which sheds light on the overall organization of the innate immune system.
The human body has sophisticated defense systems against various threats. During viral infections, certain proteins change their turnover rates and their interactions with the other molecules.
The goal of the grant “Protein Dynamics in Antiviral Processes (ProDAP)” that was awarded by ERC is to systematically analyze the influence of protein interactions and protein stability on the antiviral immune system. Initial results suggest that the organism ability to change both of these factors plays an essential role in regulating the immune system and fighting viral pathogens. Targeting the activity of these proteins could open up avenues to new treatments.
So we are hiring! Please check our open positions if you want to be a part of this ambitious project.
Novel mechanism of Interferon Suppression in Sandfly
Our collaborators Jenny Würth and Friedemann Weber identified a yet undescribed mechanism how Non-structural protein small (NSs) of Sandfly fever Sicilian phlebovirus perturbes type-I interferon induction: NSs directly associates to the DNA binding domain of the transcription factor IRF3 and thereby prevents induction of type-I interferon genes. Now published in Journal of Virology – Congratulations to Jenny!