Join the team!
Projects for postdocs, PhD students, Master and Bachelor students
Our research group combines fundamental research on bacterial secretion systems with their application in biotechnology, healthcare and plant biology.
Are you curious to find out how bacteria manipulate eukaryotic cells, compete with each other, and inject proteins and DNA into their neighbors? Interested in applying this new knowledge? Then write a short mail: andreas.diepold∂kit.edu
We offer Bachelor and Master projects that directly contribute to advancing our understanding of secretion system and their applications, see below for details.
Bachelor or Master Thesis: Effector export by the bacterial type III secretion system
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Bacteria can manipulate eukaryotic target cells by injecting effector proteins into these cells, using the type III secretion system. These systems are amongst the most complex and fascinating bacterial nanomachines, and indispensible for the virulence of many important pathogens, but can also be used in symbiosis.
In your thesis, you will work on the effector export by the type III secretion system and help to elucidate how bacteria chose the right proteins and manage to inject those proteins into target cells. With your supervisor, postdoc Corentin Brianceau, you will use modern techniques including genetics, live cell microscopy, and functional assays, to advance our knowledge on how these machines work on the molecular level, how bacteria use them, and how we can apply this knowledge.
Contact us for more information!
Master Thesis: The mysterious type VI secretion system of Yersinia enterocolitica
- time:Any time
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Type VI secretion systems (T6SS) are highly dynamic machineries used by many bacteria to fight against competitiors or manipulate host cells.
Yersinia enterocolitica hosts a peculiar T6SS that is linked to adhesive pili - possibly, the bacteria coordinate the adherence to their target cells with the injection of effectors through the T6SS. However, the T6SS is not expressed under standard laboratory conditions. We have recently managed to overcome this problem, allowing us to investigate this special T6SS for the first time. You will work together with Kira Götz, the PhD student heading this project, on a specific aspect of the T6SS.
Contact us for more information!
Joint Master Thesis with Dr. Nadja Henke, Microsystems in Bioprocess Engineering : Synthetic biology for protein secretion with Corynebacterium glutamicum
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Genetic engineering for the design and construction of increased product formation by microbes is a key technology in biotechnology. Synthetic biology aims on utilization of genetic information such as promoter sequences, expression plasmids and coding sequences for the engineering of an optimized metabolism.
Alternative protein resources are highly demanded for the food industry in order to replace animal-derived protein resources. In this work, the cell factory C. glutamicum will be genetically engineered and optimized by synthetic biology approaches in order to establish an efficient secretion of proteins.The goal of the project is to design and construct expression plasmids and use them to engineering C. glutamicum for an improved protein secretion for food application.
Contact us or Nadja Henke for more details!