From small molecules to complex organelles

Latest News

December 17, 2024 Master’s Thesis opportunity in the Karagöz lab (Max Perutz Labs) The Karagöz Lab at the Max Perutz Labs is offering an opportunity for a Master’s thesis and is looking for a student interested in structural and biophysical approaches to reveal how ER chaperones regulate the UPR. Read more →
December 12, 2024 Master’s Thesis position in the Bachmair lab (Max Perutz Labs) A master’s thesis position is available in the Bachmair group at the Max Perutz Labs, starting February 2025. Focus of the Bachmair lab lies on the biochemical and cell biological analysis of protein turnover driven by amino-terminal degradation signals. Read more →
December 4, 2024 Seipin: Guardian of Lipid Balance The inner nuclear membrane, a hub of genome regulation and nuclear envelope organization, holds untapped mysteries in lipid metabolism. In a study published in Nature Communications, the Köhler lab (Max Perutz Labs) identified Seipin – a protein previously linked to a severe lipid storage disorder – as a key regulator of inner nuclear membrane lipid homeostasis and nuclear envelope integrity. Read more →

About the Program

Targeted Protein Degradation: From small molecules to complex organelles

Our Special Research Program is a collaborative research platform to unravel how proteins are targeted for degradation. We focus on the two major cellular proteolytic pathways, the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy, and the crosstalk between them in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus. Furthermore, we investigate how small molecules can be used to chemically reprogram the degradation systems, enabling the targeted proteolysis of selected proteins in a spatially and temporally controlled manner …

Selected Publications

2024 Tau fibrils evade autophagy by excessive p62 coating and TAX1BP1 exclusion Science Advances Ferrari L, Bauer B, Qiu Y, Schuschnig M, Klotz S, Anrather D, Juretschke T, Beli P, Gelpi E, Martens S Go to publication →
2024 Large-scale chemoproteomics expedites ligand discovery and predicts ligand behavior in cells Science Offensperger F, Tin G, Duran-Frigola M, Hahn E, Dobner S, Ende CWA, Strohbach JW, Rukavina A, Brennsteiner V, Ogilvie K, Marella N, Kladnik K, Ciuffa R, Majmudar JD, Field SD, Bensimon A, Ferrari L, Ferrada E, Ng A, Zhang Z, Degliesposti G, Boeszoermenyi A, Martens S, Stanton R, Müller AC, Hannich JT, Hepworth D, Superti-Furga G, Kubicek S, Schenone M, Winter GE Go to publication →
2023 Structural basis of how the BIRC6/SMAC complex regulates apoptosis and autophagy Science Ehrmann JF, Grabarczyk DB, Heinke M, Deszcz L, Kurzbauer R, Hudecz O, Shulkina A, Gogova R, Meinhart A, Versteeg GA, Clausen T Go to publication →

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