langenhan

lab

leipzig

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 mysterious surface receptors.

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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.

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.

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We study these phenomena using the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster and the the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans 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 atomic force microscopy, structural biology, and molecular dynamics simulations.

events.

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.

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Scientific goal?

The projects concern the investigation of novel class of surface receptor molecules that function as mechanosensors and are markers of cancer progression. 

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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.

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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.

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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.