William Hirst
Intern

William is studying molecular chaperones in yeast. He is investigating how nutritional cues modulate the folding and holding functions of these chaperones.

Sonja Kroschwald
PhD student

Sonja wants to understand how protein bodies such as P bodies and stress granules form in budding yeast. She is using live cell imaging to study the dynamics of these protein bodies in the presence of diverse chemical and genetic perturbations. In addition, she is developing image-based genome-wide screens to identify genetic modifiers of P body and stress granule assembly. 

Gayathrie Kulasegaran
Master student

Gayathrie is reconstituting the filament-forming abilities of proteins in vitro. She is particularly interested in finding conditions that trigger assembly and disassembly.

Liliana Malinovska
PhD student

Lili is interested in understanding how the social ameba Dictyostelium discoideum is controlling its highly misfolding-prone asparagine-rich proteome. Her focus is primarily on the protein quality control system of Dictyostelium as well as on the question of how aggregation-prone proteins such as prions are induced, maintained and spatially distributed in the different developmental stages of Dictyostelium.

Matthias Munder
PhD student

Matthias is interested in understanding how aggregation-prone proteins are spatially organized in eukaryotic cells. He is using molecular and cell biological methods to identify molecular pathways that underlie spatial protein quality control and asymmetric inheritance in budding yeast. In addition, he is studying the functional consequences of spatial protein quality control with a particular focus on aging.

Ivana Petrovska
Postdoctoral fellow

Ivana is investigating a set of proteins that can form reversible assemblies upon nutritional and environmental stress. She is interested in understanding the function of filament formation as well as the molecular mechanisms by which these proteins assemble.

Doris Richter
Technician

Doris is interested in understanding the protein quality control system of yeast. In addition, she is trying to keep the lab running smoothly.