studied Biology at the University of Braunschweig, Germany, and the Institute for Infection Research (GBF/HZI), Braunschweig, Germany, from 1990 to 1995. He obtained a PhD from the Institute of Medical Radiation and Cell Research (MSZ) at the University of Würzburg, Germany, in 1999, working on protein-protein interactions and cell signaling. After moving to the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow in the year 2000, he started his research in transcriptional regulation by actin. In 2004, he became a junior group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. Since 2012, he is Professor of Biochemistry and Director of the Institute for Physiological Chemistry at the MLU. His current research focuses on the regulation and function of MRTF transcription factors, which are major signaling hubs in mechano-transduction and cell motility.
Project within the RTG
Cytoskeletal actin in mammalian cells is tightly regulated by actin binding proteins. Many of these contain intrinsically disordered regions, such as WH2 regions and the RPEL motifs of the myocardin-related transcription factors (MRTF-A and -B). As a consequence, mutually exclusive binding regulates MRTF-controlled transcription. However, little is known about the factors and modulators which affect IDR-binding during signalling.
Key publications
Kluge F, Weissbach J, Weber A, Stradal T, Posern G. Regulation of MRTF-A by JMY via a nucleation-independent mechanism. Cell Commun Signal. 2018, 16: 86.
Seifert A, Posern G. Tightly controlled MRTF-A activity regulates epithelial differentiation during formation of mammary acini. Breast Cancer Res. 2017, 19: 68.
Weissbach J, Schikora F, Weber A, Kessels M, Posern G. Myocardin-related transcription factor A activation by competition with WH2 domain proteins for actin binding. Mol Cell Biol. 2016, 36: 1526-1539.