science.
We study the molecular logic of mechanobiology in health and disease.
We investigate molecular actors that belong to the class of adhesion-type G protein-coupled receptors. These molecules form a large group of surface receptors that constitute natural chimeras between an extracellular adhesion moiety and a transmembrane metabotropic signalling unit.
We have discovered that specific adhesion GPCRs control developmental processes such as planar cell polarity and cell migration, and have contributed to the understanding how adhesion and signalling is functionally combined within these intriguing surface receptors.
Recently we have defined adhesion GPCRs as mechanoreceptors suggesting a novel scientific angle to study and understand their physiological profiles in a multitude of tissues and cell types including neurons, glia, muscle, vasculature and the heart. A focus of these efforts is the investigation into how forces shape synaptic contacts.
We are also harnessing our knowledge to understand how adhesion GPCR dysfunction results in disease with focus on cancers and neuropsychiatric disorders. To this end we closely collaborate with clinician scientists and human geneticists to identify adhesion GPCR gene variants that cause human ailments.
We study these phenomena using the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster and employ their vast genetic, molecular biological, imaging and functional toolkits. This is complemented by in vitro and in silico approaches encompassing molecular modifications through genetic code expansion and bioorthogonal click chemistry, pharmacological and cell biological assays, super-resolution and force spectroscopy, structural biology, and molecular dynamics simulations.
people.
Paul Goldine
MD candidate
Michal Mitro, MSc
PhD candidate
Florentine Buss
MD candidate
Berkay Demirbas, MSc
PhD candidate
Lena Abicht
Student assistant
Lucia Ernst
MD candidate
Paula Beckmann, MSc
Technician
Hauke Staake
MD candidate
Tobias Langenhan, MSc, MD, DPhil
Head of Department
Nil Demir, MSc
PhD candidate
Achmed Mrestani, MD
Affiliated group leader (Dept of Neurology)
Prabarakan Annadurai, MSc
PhD candidate
Fabian Pohl, PhD
Postdoc
Max Buhlan
MD candidate
Marguerite Kemkemer
MD candidate
Marie Gläser
MD candidate
Nicole Scholz, PhD
Group leader
Marek Körner, MSc
PhD candidate
Elisabeth Triegel
MD candidate
Kathrin Michel
Student assistant
Svenja Kapplinghaus, MSc
Technician
Lara Brodmerkel
MD candidate
Helene Jöchel
MD candidate
Stephanie Häfner, PhD
Postdoc
Anne Bormann, MSc
PhD candidate
Bianca Löffler
Secretary
Anne Dahse, MSc
PhD candidate
William Hamlet, MSc
PhD candidate
Marvin Noß, MSc
MD candidate
Otto Naumann
Technician
Amelie Meyer-Mölck
MD candidate
Franz Müller
MD candidate
Lina Zielke, MSc
PhD candidate
Frank Struck
Technician
Dmitrij Ljaschenko, PhD
Group leader
Beatriz Blanco-Redondo, PhD
Group leader
ALUMNI
Paul Winter
BSc Student (2024)
Anna Beyer-Augst
MD Student (2023-2024)
Ina Brauer, MSc
PhD Student (2018-2022)
Mathias Böhme, PhD
Group leader (2021-2023)
Marina Bigl, PhD
Group Leader (2016-2021)
Kerstin Heise
Technician (2016-2024)
Fernando Vieira Contreras, PhD
PhD Student (2018-2024)
Sasha Kaufmann
Student assistant (2022-2023)
Andrea Böhme
Technician (2016-2022)
Joris Lehmann
MSc Student, Biology (2020-2021)
Genevieve Auger, PhD
PhD Student (2018-2024)
Paul Tarlatt
Student assistant (2021-2023)
Mareike Hemberger, MSc
MSc and PhD Student, Physics (2018-2022)
Sophia Schmidt, BSc
Student assistant (2020-2022)
Lena Müller
BSc and MSc Student, Biochemistry (2018-2020)
鍾炫坤 ('Alex' Yin Kwan Chung), PhD
PhD Student (2020-2024)
Maraike Czogalla
Student assistant (2022-2023)
Katharina Götze
MD Student, Medicine (2019-2023)
Carlo Eberlein, MSc
MSc student (2020-2021)
Robert Wieduwild, PhD
Group Leader (2018-2020)
jobs.
We are eager to take on new lab members at different stages in their career starting from lab interns, students striving for their bachelor and master projects, M.D. and Ph.D. candidates, as well as postdoctoral researchers.
If you are interested in joining our research party get in touch at
tobi ÄT langenhan-lab.org with your motivation, project ideas and transcripts.
READY FOR A FUN AND
AMBITIOUS PHD PROJECT?
What?
Several fixed-term for 3 years PhD positions are open at the Langenhan Lab based at the University of Leipzig. The successful candidates will work at the interface between molecular pharmacology, physiology and biophysics in a project of the Rudolf Schönheimer Institute for Biochemistry.
Scientific goal?
The projects concern the investigation of novel class of surface receptor molecules that function as mechanosensors and are markers of cancer progression.
Central questions concern the fundamental physiological tasks, pharmacological principles and viscoelastic properties of these receptors and their expressing cells and tissues. The main objective is the determination how these receptors’ activation and signaling mechanism is implemented at the molecular and cellular scale. The projects will rest on the close collaboration between biomedical researchers, structural biologists and physicists. The experimental measurements will be facilitated by in-house theoretical and experimental support.
The successful candidates will establish structure-function studies and pharmacological signaling assays of receptor activity, and combine those with biophysical measurements, genetic, biofinformatical and physiological assays using Drosophila melanogaster as an in vivo model for adhesion GPCR signaling.
Who are you?
The candidates should have a MSc. degree in physics, material science, biology or related fields, be fluent in English and have solid background in physics or molecular biology. Experience with the investigation of biomolecules with physical methods (e.g. AFM-FS, magnetic or optical tweezers), molecular biology or Drosophila is beneficial but not mandatory.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
OR GROUP LEADER POSITION
What?
Applications are sought from strong candidates working in any area of biomedicine that complements or builds upon existing research strengths in the department. This search is open, but preference is given to those applicants with experience in neurobiology, molecular pharmacology or biochemistry holding or seeking their own post-doctoral fellowship.
Scientific goal?
This is for you to define. We'll help and advise you to get you started,
build up your own team, procure funding and excel with your research ideas.
Who are you?
Candidates must hold a Doctorate in a biological subject (ideally medicine, biology, bioinformatics, or biochemistry). Candidates are given the opportunity to establish their own research program, and assistance will be available to attract the necessary funding for the successful applicant.
Who are we?
The PhD students will have access to state-of-the-art laboratories, which are located at the Institute of Biochemistry and partner institutions in Leipzig. The international and interdisciplinary environment at the department provides an excellent infrastructure allowing dynamic scientific exchange across the traditional disciplines. The lab has also a central role in the German (www.adhesiongpcr.de) and international adhesion GPCR communities (www.adhesiongpcr.org) and successful candidates will gain immediate access to a young yet rapidly emerging field in biomedicine with substantial long-term career potential.
Where?
Leipzig is a pretty sassy place to be at in Germany, of not the trendiest ... say not only we but also the New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and others.
In addition, Leipzig University is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increase the proportion of women in academia. Consequently, we actively encourage applications by female colleagues. Female candidates with equivalent qualifications and academic achievements will be preferentially considered within the framework of the legal possibilities. We also welcome applications from candidates with severe disabilities. Disabled candidates with equivalent qualifications will be preferentially considered.
How?
Please submit your application by email with the usual documents (cover letter, CV, three references,
Master’s transcript, Ph.D. certificate if applicable) to:
Prof. Tobias Langenhan
Faculty of Medicine
Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry
Division of General Biochemistry
Leipzig University
E: jobs ÄT langenhan-lab.org
publications.
Intron retention of an adhesion GPCR generates 1TM isoforms required for 7TM-GPCR function
2025
Cell Reports
44(1):115078
Bormann A*, Körner MB*, Dahse A-K*, Gläser MS, Irmer J, Lede V, Alenfelder J, Lehmann J, Hall DCN, Thane M, Schleyer M, Kostenis E, Schöneberg T, Bigl M, Langenhan T, Ljaschenko D#, Scholz N#
Molecular sensing of mechano- and ligand-dependent adhesion GPCR dissociation
2023
Nature
615(7954):945-953
Scholz N*,#, Dahse A-K*, Kemkemer M, Bormann A, Auger GM, Contreras FV, Ernst LF, Staake H, Körner MB, Buhlan M, Meyer-Mölck A, Chung YK, Blanco-Redondo B, Klose F, Jarboui MA, Ljaschenko D, Bigl M, Langenhan T#
Altered gene expression profiles impair the nervous system development in individuals with 15q13.3 microdeletion
2022
Scientific Reports
12(1):13507
Körner MB*, Velluva A*, Bundalian L, Radtke M, Lin CC, Zacher P, Bartolomaeus T, Kirstein AS, Mrestani A, Scholz N, Platzer K, Teichmann AC, Hentschel J, Langenhan T, Lemke JR, Garten A, Abou Jamra R#, Le Duc D#
The human cognition-enhancing CORD7 mutation increases active zone number and synaptic release
2022
Brain
145(11):3787-3802
Paul MM*, Dannhäuser S*, Morris L*, Mrestani A*, Hübsch M, Gehring J, Hatzopoulos GN, Pauli M, Auger GM, Bornschein G, Scholz N, Ljaschenko D, Müller M, Sauer M, Schmidt H, Kittel RJ, DiAntonio A, Vakonakis I, Heckmann M#, Langenhan T#
Improving one-step scarless genome editing in
Drosophila melanogaster by combining ovoD co-CRISPR selection with sgRNA target site masking
2022
Biology Methods & Protocols
7(1):bpac003
Götze KJ*, Mrestani A*, Beckmann P, Krohn K, Le Duc D, Velluva A, Böhme MA, Heckmann M, Abou Jamra R, Lemke JR, Bläker H, Scholz N, Ljaschenko D#, Langenhan T#
Tethered agonist exposure in intact adhesion/class B2 GPCRs through intrinsic structural flexibility of the GAIN domain
2021
Molecular Cell
81(5):905-921
Beliu G*, Altrichter S*, Guixà-González R*, Hemberger M, Brauer I, Dahse AK, Scholz N, Wieduwild R, Kuhlemann A, Batebi H, Seufert F, Pérez-Hernández G, Hildebrand PW#, Sauer M#, Langenhan T#
Implications of the Sap47 null mutation for synapsin phosphorylation, longevity, climbing proficiency and behavioural plasticity in adult Drosophila
2019
Journal of Experimental Biology
222(Pt 19):jeb203505
Blanco-Redondo B#, Nuwal N, Kneitz S, Nuwal T, Halder P, Liu Y, Ehmann N, Scholz N, Mayer A, Kleber J, Kähne T, Schmitt D, Sadanandappa MK, Funk N, Albertova V, Helfrich-Förster C, Ramaswami M, Hasan G, Kittel RJ, Langenhan T, Gerber B, Buchner E#
International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. XCIV. Adhesion G Protein–Coupled Receptors
2015
Pharmacological Reviews
67(2):338-367
Hamann J*,#, Aust G*, Araç D, Engel FB, Formstone C, Fredriksson R, Hall RA, Harty BL, Kirchhoff C, Knapp B, Krishnan A, Liebscher I, Lin HH, Martinelli DC, Monk KR, Peeters MC, Piao X, Prömel S, Schöneberg T, Schwartz TW, Singer K, Stacey M, Ushkaryov YA, Vallon M, Wolfrum U, Wright MW, Xu L, Langenhan T*, Schiöth HB*,#
New functions and signaling mechanisms for the class of adhesion G protein–coupled receptors
2014
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
1333(1):43-64
Liebscher I, Ackley B, Arac D, Ariestanti DM, Aust G, Bae B-I, Bista BR, Bridges JP, Duman JG, Engel FB, Giera S, Goffinet AM, Hall RA, Hamann J, Hartmann N, Lin, H-H, Liu M, Luo R, Mogha A, Monk KR, Peeters MC, Prömel S, Ressl S, Schiöth HB, Sigoillot SM, Song H, Talbot WS, Tall GG, White JP, Wolfrum U, Xu L, Piao X
Dissecting signaling and functions of adhesion G protein-coupled receptors
2012
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
1276(1):1-25
Araç D, Aust G, Calebiro D, Engel FB, Formstone C, Goffinet A, Hamann J, Kittel RJ, Liebscher I, Lin HH, Monk KR, Petrenko A, Piao X, Prömel S, Schiöth HB, Schwartz TW, Stacey M, Ushkaryov YA, Wobus M, Wolfrum U, Xu L, Langenhan T
contact.
Tobi Langenhan
Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry
Division of General Biochemistry. Medical Faculty. Leipzig University
Johannisallee 30. 04103 Leipzig. Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 341 97-22100
tobi ÄT langenhan-lab.org