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Congratulations Moritz!

Congratulations to Moritz Klischan  who defended his thesis successfully on 27 September 2024!

Moritz joined the Research Training Group 2158 in October 2019 and has been contributing to the success of the Research Training Group ever since.

He worked on his doctoral research project "Biaryl-based natural products as structural motif for pharmaceutically relevant compounds" in the Group of Jörg Pietruszka - Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry.

Moritz already started a position in industry.

We wish Moritz all the best for his future!

Congratulations Fabian!

Congratulations to Fabian Fischer who defended his thesis successfully on 27 August 2024!

Fabian joined the Research Training Group 2158 in April 2020 and started working on his doctoral research project "Development of Class I/IIb histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and HDAC-PROTACs" in the Group of Thomas Kurz - Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry.

Together with his collaborators within GRK 2158 he has been significally contributing to the success of project cluster II and the Research Training Group in general.

Fabian already started a position in industry.

We wish Fabian all the best for his future!

Congratulations Flaminia!

Congratulations to Flaminia Mazzone who defended her thesis successfully on 23 August 2024!

Flaminia joined our Research Training Group and Klaus Pfeffer's group (Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene) in 2020 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since through many rewarding collaborations (see publications).

In her research project she has been working on the "Identification, characterisation and optimisation of novel natural products and derivatives with antimicrobial activity against Toxoplasma gondii".

We wish Flaminia all the best for her future!

Congratulations Talea!

Congratulations to Talea Knak who defended her thesis successfully on 19 August 2024!

Talea who worked in the Group of Thomas Kurz - Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry - joined our Research Training Group in September 2020 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since.

In her research project she has been working on the "Preclinical optimization of the anti-infective natural substances chlorflavonin and fosmidomycin".

We wish Talea all the best for her future!

Congratulations Titus!

Congratulations to Titus Watrin who defended his thesis successfully on 16 July 2024 to become a medical doctor!

Titus joined the GRK in 2021 to pursue his medical doctoral thesis in the lab o Sanil Bhatia  (Medical Faculty, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Clinical Immunology).

In his thesis Titus worked on the topic "In vitro characterization of organ toxicity of chemotherapy and targeted inhibitors for the therapy of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia using high-throughput drug screening".

We wish Titus all the best for his future!

Congratulations Xiaoli!

Congratulations to Xiaoli Yang who defended her thesis successfully on 17 May 2024!

Xiaoli joined the GRK in 2019 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since.

In her research project in the Research Group of Stefanie Scheu - Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene - she has contriubuted to the understanding of the "Beauvericin Targets Toll Like Receptor 4 and Cathepsin B to Promote Dendritic Cell Activation".

We wish Xiaoli all the best for her future!

Joint-Retreat with RTG 2408

The GRK's annual retreat took place from 24-26.4.24. This year we met up with GRK 2408 from Magdeburg. After the doctoral researchers presented the respective Research Training Groups (RTG), locations and research areas, all participants worked very productively in round tables on different topics of the RTGs and a short but very effective proposal workshop. In addition to all this, exchange and networking with the participants from Magdeburg was of central importance and led to new contacts and reciprocal invitations to Düsseldorf and Magdeburg. We would like to thank all participants and are delighted that the retreat was such a success.

Congratulations Marco!

Congratulations to Marco Kruppa who defended his thesis successfully on 20 December 2023!

Marco joined the GRK in 2019 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since (see publications).

In his research project in the Research Group of Thomas J. J. Müller - Organic Chemistry - he has contriubuted to the understanding of the "Diversity-oriented synthesis of symmetrically and unsymmetrically substituted N-heterocyclic-bridged bisindoles against therapy resistant bacteria".

Marco will start his postdoc at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry (Group of Thomas Kurz).

We wish Marco all the best for his future!

Congratulations Lena!

Congratulations to Lena Berning who defended her thesis successfully on 04 December 2023!

Lena joined the GRK in 2019 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since (see publications)

In her research project in the Institute of Molecular Medicine I (Björn Stork) she has contriubuted to the understanding of the "Characterization of the autophagy-modulating natural compound prodigiosin for the elimination of therapy-resistant tumor cells".

We wish Lena all the best for her future!

Congratulations Laura!

Congratulations to Laura Schmitt who defended her thesis successfully on 23 November 2023!

Laura joined the GRK in 2019 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since.

In her research project in the Institute of Molecular Medicine I (Sebastian Wesselborg) she has contriubuted to the understanding of the "Elimination of chemotherapeutic-resistant tumors by natural product-induced cell death".

Laura continued her research work in GRK 2158 as a postdoc to boost her future scientific career.

We wish Laura all the best for her future!

Congratulations, Julia!

Congratulations to Julia Gottstein who defended her thesis successfully on 23 October 2023!

Julia joined the GRK in 2019 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since.

In her research project in the Institute of Biochemistry I (Sander Smits) she has contriubuted to the understanding of the "Lantibiotic resistance in human pathogens".

We wish Julia all the best for her future!

Julia got the Poster Award

Julia Gottstein (Group of Sander Smits) won a Poster Prize at the Multi Drug Efflux Systems Gordon Research Conference which took place from 26 - 31 March 2023 in Galveston, Texas. Congratulations, Julia!

Retreat 2022

From March 30 to April 1 2022 we met at  Sport- and Seminarcenter in Radevormwald for our annual retreat.

This year's retreat of the Research Training Group 2158 was a great success. Our PhD students presented their project progress in the form of posters and short poster presentations. In the subsequent poster sessions, the results were discussed in detail and valuable impulses for further work were given. The discussions were also continued in small group meetings of the project clusters and to further advance the work in the clusters.

As research data management is a very important topic, the speaker of the GRK, Holger Gohlke, introduced us to further ideas and implementation possibilities in a keynote speech.

There was also a poster prize to be won. Flaminia Mazzone convinced with her scientifically high valuable and colorful poster and is now the proud owner of a unique GRK 2158 mug. Congratulations. Even if there was only one poster prize, all others posters were also well prepared and of high quality.

Congratulations, David!

Congratulations to David Bickel who defended his thesis successfully on 8 December 2021!

David joined the GRKs in 2017 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since.

In his research project in the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry (Holger Gohlke) he dealt with the Computational drug design based in natural leads to overcome drug resistance in targeted and pan-cancer therapy.

David already started to work as postdoctoral researcher in the Bio2Byte group at Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, Belgium.

We wish David all the best for his future!

New publiations online!

Julian Schliehe-Diecks and Sanil Bhatia recently conributed to two new publications in Chemical Science and Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. In both publications the design of news HDAC inhibitors and their characteristics were described.

More information:

  • Selg, C., Schöler, A., Schliehe-Diecks, J., Hanl, M., Sinatra, L., Borkhardt, A., Sarosi M.B., Bhatia, S., Hey-Hawkins, E., Hansen, F.K. (2021) Borinostats: solid-phase synthesis of carborane-capped histone deacetylase inhibitors with a tailor-made selectivity profile. Chemical Science 12, 11873-11881, https://doi.org/10.1039/D1SC02268G
  • Schäker-Hübner, L., Warstat, R., Ahlert, H., Mishra, P., Kraft, F.B., Schliehe-Diecks, J., Schöler, A., Borkhardt, A., Breit, B., Bhatia, S., Hügle, M., Günther, S., Hansen, F.K. (2021) 4-Acyl Pyrrole Capped HDAC Inhibitors: A New Scaffold for Hybrid Inhibitors of BET Proteins and Histone Deacetylases as Antileukemia Drug Leads. J Med Chem. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.1c01119

Annual GRK 2158 Retreat 2021

For the annual GRK 2158 retreat all members met virtually via Webex from 20th until 22nd of September 2021.

The retreat was structured by the project clusters, so during the first day the results of clusters 2 and 4 were presented by the respective PhD students, during the second day the results of clusters 1 and 3. Afterwards, the cluster groups had time to discuss further details and strategies in small group meetings. Here, the focus was mainly on the short-term and long-term project goals, the deepening of existing and the identification of new collaborations, the discussion of further publication strategies as well as possibilities for lab rotations of the PhD students. On the last day, the results of these small group meetings were presented and discussed in a group session. The project-based discussions were livened up by general fun surveys about the GRK. As every year, this retreat provided a good basis for further joint work in the GRK. Nevertheless, we are all looking forward to the next presence meeting in March 2022.

Lantibiotics - promising alternative against antibiotic resistance?

Our doctoral student Julia Gottstein, together with her colleagues from the Institute of Biochemistry I, published an article about lantibiotics as a promising alternative against antibiotic resistance. Using nisin as an example, ways to circumvent naturally occurring resistance to lantibiotics in humapathogenic bacteria are described. For this purpose, both inhibition of resistance proteins and genetic modification of lantibiotics are considered and described in this article.

More about this article:

Gottstein, J., Klose, H., Knospe, C.V., Reiners, J., Smits, S.H., Schmitt, L. (2021) Lantibiotika – hoffnungsvolle Alternative gegen Antibiotikaresistenz? Biospektrum 05.21: 551-553

DOI: 10.1007/s12268-021-1621-5

Congratulations Fabian!

Congratulations to Fabian Stuhldreier who defended his thesis successfullyon 1 September 2021!

Fabian joined the GRKs in 2016 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since (see publication list).

In his research project in the Institute of Molecular Medicine I (S. Wesselborg) he dealt with the ldentification of apoptosis-inducing natural products and derivatives for the elimination of tumor cells.

Fabian already started to work at the Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin (BAuA) in Dortmund.

We wish Fabian all the best for his future!

Congratulations Jana!

Congratulations to Jana Aengenvoort, née van Stuijvenberg, who defended her thesis successfully on 26 August 2021!

Jana joined the GRKs in 2017 and has been successfully contributing to its success ever since (see publication list).

In her research project int the Institute of Toxicology (G. Fritz) she dealt with the targeting mechanisms of DNA damage response (DDR) to overcome anticancer drug resistance of tumor cells resulting in her thesis entitled "Faktoren der DNA-Schadensantwort als Zielstrukturen von Naturstoffen zur Behandlung von Tumoren" [Factors of DNA damage response as targets of natural products for the treatment of tumors].

We wish Jana all the best for her future!

Cover feature in Chemistry - A European Journal

The GRK 2158 groups of Klaus Pfeffer and Thomas J. J. Müller collaborated with Christoph Janiak's group on the synthesis of flourescent indolo[3,2‐a]phenazines and their effects against the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. The contribution was selected as a cover feature in Chemistry - A European Journal.

Read more about the study, which also had the participation of several doctoral researchers of Research Training Group 2158(*):

Merkt, F. K., Mazzone*, F., Shaneh Sazzadeh*, S., Bonda, L., Hinz*, L.K.E., Gruber, I., Buchholz, K., Janiak, C., Pfeffer, K., Müller, T.J.J. (2021) Fluorescent Indolo[3,2‐a]phenazines against Toxoplasma gondii – concise synthesis by Au‐catalyzed cycloisomerization with 1,2‐Silyl migration and ipso‐Iodination‐Suzuki Sequence. Chemistry - A European Journal

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.202101391

Virtual Symposium 2021

Our symposium this year has successfully taken place on May 3, 2021.

The presentations of the guest speakers from academia and industry were very impressive and thematically perfectly fitted the Research Training Group. We would like to thank Simone Moser (LMU Munich), Susanne Roehrig (Bayer Helathcare AG), Anna Hirsch (HIPS) and Jon Clardy (Harvard University, USA) for the insights into their very interesting research.

The presentations of the two PhD students, Laura Schmitt and Marco Kruppa, showed only a small part of the work taking place in the GRK, but reflected the excellent projects as well as the close cooperation of the members of the Research Training Group, which contribute significantly to the success of the GRK.  

Although we could only meet online, the symposium was a complete success.

Good Bye, Haiqian!

Dr. Haiqian Yu joined RTG 2158 in October 2016 as a doctoral researcher. He finished his doctoral project in December 2019 successfully.

Subsequently Haiqian applied for the Postdoctoral position in RTG 2158 and was selected out of all excellent applicants. As Postdoctoral Researcher he worked on the own designed research project "Investigation of actinomycetes from extreme environments for searching novel anti-​tuberculosis metabolites". In addition to his research work Haiqian was also involved in the training of graduate students of RTG 2158.

Now, Haiqian will leave Germany for a new position in China.

We wish him all the best for his future!

Congratulations David!

Today (25.02.21), David Schütermann defended his thesis successfully. David worked on the topic "Autophagy: Molecular insights into its role and therapeutic potential in bladder cancer and neurodegeneration" in Björn Stork's research group in the Institute of Molecular Biology I. During his time as doctoral researcher he also contributed to several excellent publications related to GRK 2158 (see publication list).

We wish David all the best for his future! Congratulations!

Second Funding Period of GRK 2158 approved

14 teams from the fields of pharmacy, chemistry and medicine at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) are conducting joint research to clarify molecular resistance mechanisms. They are searching for new active ingredients that can overcome intrinsic or acquired resistance in tumor diseases and infections. Since 2016, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has been funding the Research Training Group (RTG) 2158, which is at the intersection of the university's potential areas of infection research, oncology and drug discovery.

Building on the outstanding results of the first funding period, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG is now funding the group with almost 4 four million euros for a further four and a half years.

View full message on the HHU page: https://www.hhu.de/news-einzelansicht/naturstoffe-und-analoga-gegen-therapieresistente-tumoren-und-mikroorganismen


Congratulations Shabnam!

Congratulations to Shabnam Shaneh Sazzadeh who successfully defended her thesis entitled "Identification of Novel Natural Products with Antimicrobial Activity against Apicomplexa and Multiresistant Gram-Negative Rods" on 15th of September 2020.Shabnam was working in the group of Prof. Dr. Klaus Pfeffer in the Institute of Medical Microbiology.

We wish Shabnam all the best for her future career!


Congratulations Yodita & Marc!

Congratulations to Yodita Asfaha and Marc Pflieger for successfully defending their doctoral theses on August 14, 2020.

Both, Yodita and Marc, did their theses in the working group of Prof. Dr. Thomas Kurz in the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemisty and worked on the synthesis and biological evaluation of HDAC inhibitor, with Marc investigating  HDAC class I and HDAC 6 histone deacetylase inhibitors and Yodita novel selective inhibitors of class IIa HDACs. Yodita and Marc contributed to publications during their PhD time. Beyond that both, especially Yodita as doctoral student speaker, showed a high-level commitment to the GRK.

We thank Yodita and Marc for their engagement and help in the GRK and wish them all the best for their future career. 


Congratulations Jana!

Congratulations to Jana Deitersen for successfully defending her doctoral thesis on July 7, 2020. Jana did her thesis on "Identification of autophagy-modulating natural products and derivatives for the elimination of therapy-resistant tumor cells" at the Institute of Molecular Medicine I of the UKD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Björn Stork. During this time she not only contributed to the progress of her GRK project and thus to numerous publications, but also made a significant impact on the GRK in her function as PhD student representative and also afterwards.
We thank Jana for her engagement in the GRK and wish her all the best for her future career. 


4th annual symposium of GRK 2158

The annual GRK2258 symposium should have taken place in Sport+Seminarcenter Radevormwald from 16.-18.3.20. Due to Covid-19 the symposium was postponed to the 1st & 2nd of July and took place as an online event successfully. At this symposium the doctoral students gave presentations about their research projects. On the second day there were small group meetings in which the scientists of the individual research clusters within the GRK came together to discuss the projects and further cooperations.

The highly interesting talks of the invited speakers completed the program perfectly.

Invited Speaker Title of Talk

Prof. Dr. Uli Kazmaier

Insititute of Organic Chemistry, Saarland University

Stereoselective peptide modifications – versatile tools for natural product and drug synthesis

 

Prof. Dr. Julia Bandow

Applied Microbiology, Ruhr University Bochum

Antibacterial strategies – from the discovery of new compound classes to antibiotic mechanism elucidation

Dr. Sanil Bhatia

Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Clinical Immunology, HHU Düsseldorf

Novel therapeutic strategies for resistant childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Congratulations Yvonne!

Congratulations to Yvonne Gröner to the successful defense of her thesis on May 27th 2020. Yvonne worked on the "Functional characterization of the antimicrobial activity of synthetic callyaerins against Mycobacterium tuberculosis" in the research group of Prof. Dr. Rainer Kalscheuer (Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology & Biotechnology). Together with Julia Zaschke-Kriesche she also published a part of his results in the special issue "Natural product-derived lead structures and modes-of-action against therapy-resistant tumors and microorganisms" in Journal of Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmc.2019.06.031).

We wish Yvonne all the best for her future career!


Congratulations Daniel!

Congratulations to Daniel Drießen to the successful defense of his thesis on May 25th. Daniel worked on the "Diversity-oriented One-pot Synthesis of Novel Active Agents Against Therapy Resistant Tumors and Infections" in the research group of Prof. Dr. Thomas J.J. Müller (Chair of Organic Chemistry). Together with Annika Frank and Fabian Stuhldreier he also published a part of his results in the special issue "Natural product-derived lead structures and modes-of-action against therapy-resistant tumors and microorganisms" in Journal of Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry (see publications).

We wish Daniel all the best for his future career!


Congratulations Lisa!

Our doctoral student Lisa Richter successfully defended her thesis with the title "Identification of immunological properties of natural products for the treatment of resistant tumors and bacterial pathogens" on December 20th 2019. Lisa worked in the research group of Stefanie Scheu (Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene). She published her results in several publications and also presented her results at several national and international conferences successfully. 

We wish Lisa all the best for her future career!

Congratulations!


Congratulations to Haiqian, Nam and Chenyin!

On December 18th 2019 Haiqian Yu, Nam Michael Tran-Cong and Chenyin Wang defended their doctoral theses successfully.

Both Haiqian and Nam worked on secondary metabolites from fungi in the group of Peter Proksch who was the initial speaker of the GRK2158 (Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology and Biotechnology). Haiqian investigated "Secondary metabolites from fungi Coniella fragariae and Phomopsis sp. D15a2a" and Nam studied "Secondary metabolites from endophytic fungi derived from Traditional Medicinal herbs: Drug discovery, diversity enhancement, structure elucidation and bioactivity". Both published their results successfully (see publications).

Chenyin did her doctoral thesis with the title "Promising novel therapeutic strategies for cisplatin resistant bladder cancer" in the working group of Matthias Kassack and contributed her results to several publications.

All three Haiqian, Nam and Chenyin have provided irreplaceable support to the GRK2158, especially during the organization of the symposium in Peking in 2018. Thanks!

We wish Haiqian, Nam and Chenyin all the best for their future career!

Congratulations!


Congratulations Annika!

Congratulations to Annika who defended her PhD thesis with the title "From natural scaffolds to detailed drug-target interactions on biogenic amines" on December 17th 2019. Annika worked in Holger Stark's group (Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry) and in close collaboration with other doctoral students and groups within the GRK2158. During her time as Phd student she did not only worked on her PhD thesis successfully (see publications), but also supported the GRK2158 as speaker of the PhD students. Thank you for that.

We wish Annika all the best for her future career!


Congratulations Julia!

Our doctoral student Julia Schumacher, née Zaschke-Kriesche, defended her PhD thesis on December 16th 2019 successfully. Julia worked on the elucidation of the resistance mechanisms of Lantibiotics in human pathogens in Sander Smits' group and in close collaboration with other research groups within the GRK2158. Her intensive and successful research on this field does not only end up in an impressive defense, but also led to various publications.

We wish Julia all the best for her future career!

Congratulations!


Kick-off Meeting 2. generation of doctoral students

At our kick-off meeting on October 28, 2019, we welcomed the doctoral students of the 2nd cohort in Research Training Group 2158.
After the introduction of the Research Training Group and the presentation of the qualification programme, all participating institutes were presented. Afterwards all PhD students of the 1st and 2nd cohort as well as the PIs came together for further talks, snacks and to get to know each other.


Congratulations Philip!

Congratulations to our doctoral student Philip Böhler who defended his thesis on October 29th 2019 successfully. Philip who worked in the research group of Sebastian Wesselborg (Institute of Molecular Medicine I, UKD) entitled his thesis "Three tales of death: New pathways in the induction, inhibition and execution of apoptosis". During his PhD Philip contributed to several publications as first or co-author: see publications.

We wish Philip all best for his future career!


Congratulations Hjördis!

Congratulations to our doctoral student Hjördis Brückmann who defended her thesis on October 7th 2019 successfully. Hjördis worked on the topic of modification of priviledged structural elements for the synthesis of new drug candidates which might be applied as lipid modulators and anti-infectives. This work was done in the research group of Prof. Dr. Holger Stark at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry. 

We wish Hjördis all best for her future career!


Jana van Stuijvenberg wins Poster Award!

Congratulations to Jana van Stuijvenberg for winning a Poster Award at the 67th International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research. Jana is working in the working group of Prof. Dr. Gerhard Fritz at the undefinedInstitute of Toxicology. At the conference she presented her work on "Targeting mechanisms of the DNA damage response (DDR) by natural compounds".

The International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research took place in Innsbruck, Austria, from Sept 1 to 5 2019. More information about this conference you can find undefinedhere.


Special Issue in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry

The special issue "Natural product-derived lead structures and modes-of-action against therapy-resistant tumors and microorganisms", edited by the GRK2158 speaker Holger Gohlke, is devoted to recent advances in unraveling molecular mechanisms of intrinsic or extrinsic resistance in the treatment of tumors and infections with microbial pathogens, and in the identification and development of new natural product-based, bioactive compounds that can overcome such mechanisms.

The articles collected in this special issue reflect some of the challenges encountered during that work and the collaborative efforts, encompassing the fields of natural product research, micro- and cell biology, immunology, biochemistry, organic and medicinal chemistry, toxicology, and molecular modeling and design, of scientists of the German Research Foundation (DFG)-funded Research Training Group 2158 and additional experts to overcome these challenges.

More information about this issue: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/bioorganic-and-medicinal-chemistry/special-issue/10WBM0BS0L1

All articles contributed by the doctoral students of GRK2158 are listed on our "undefinedpublication" webseite.


Annual GRK2158 Symposium in May 2019

From 27 to 28 May, this year's symposium took place at the Haus der Universität in Düsseldorf. A highlight was the lecture by Prof. dr. Dr. h.c. Peter Proksch on "Tales from Chemical Ecology" which was open to public.
More information about the symposium can be found undefinedhere.


Excursion to Merck

As a part of the qualification program of Research Training Group 2158 our doctoral students can visit companys which are active in the fields of pharmaceutical research with the focus on natural products, anti-infectives, anti-cancer therapies etc.

In February 2019 our doctoral student had the opportunity to visit the big company Merck in Darmstadt where they got insights in Drug Descovery Technologies, the Merck Oncology Platform and the career options at Merck. This excursion was not only a good chance to get to know the research and development strategies from the industrial point of view (in comparison to the academic research), but also to get in touch with a potentional future employer. 


Congratulations to Julia Sperlich!

Congratulations to Julia Sperlich who defended her thesis on December 17th 2018 successfully. Julia worked in the research group of Prof. Dr. Nicole Teusch at the TH Köln. The main aim of her work was the "Pharmacological characterization of pseudoptrosin, azaphilone and teleocidin as novel drug candidates for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer". Julia enriched our GRK not only by her topic, but also through close cooperation with other groups within the GRK, which can also be proven by publications (see undefinedpublication list of GRK).

We wish Julia all best for her future career!


Isolation and Characterization of new bioactive fungal natural products

In a close collaboration of of several groups of research training group GRK2158 (Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology and Biotechnology, P. Proksch, and Technische Hochschule Köln, N. Teusch) as well as further international cooperation partners from University of Debrecen, Hungary, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences and China Three Gorges University, China, seven new bioactive fungal natural products were isolated from the fungus Coniella fragaria and characterized.

The isolation and structure elucidation of these new azaphilone derivatives, Coniellins A - G, the promising results of the investigations of their cytotoxic and NF-κB inhibitory activities as well as their effects in tumor cell migration were reported in the Journal of Natural Products by Yu et al., recently.

The article was published in Journal of Natural Products:

Yu, H., Sperlich, J., Mándi, A., Kurtán, T., Dai, H., Teusch, N., Guo, Z.-Y., Zou, K., Liu, Z., Proksch, P. (2018) Azaphilone derivatives from the fungus Coniella fragariae inhibit NF-κB activation and reduce tumor cell migration. J Nat Prod DOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.8b00540

Link to publication


GRK2158 Symposium 2018 in Beijing, China

The long-standing cooperation between Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Peter Proksch of Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology and Biotechnology of the University of Duesseldorf and Prof. Dr. Wenhan Lin of the State Key Laboratoty of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs of Peking University is not only a basis for a fruitful exchange of knowledge about natural products and new natural products themselves, but has now led to the joint organization of this year's symposium about “Natural products and analogs against therapy resistant tumours and microorganisms” from Sept 17 till 21 in Beijing, China. Together with Prof. Dr Wenhan Lin, who is participated in GRK2158 as a Mercator fellow, GRK2158 provided an excellent platform for all German and Chinese doctoral students and principal investigators for presenting and discussing their research concerning natural products as well as for the establishing of new research cooperations.

The second symposium of Research Training Group 2158 (GRK2158) on Natural compounds and analogs against therapy resistant tumours and microorganisms took place from September 17th till 21st 2018 in Beijing, China.

More information about the programm etc. you can find here

The official press release of Heinrich Heine University is available on the University Website


Haiqian Yu wins Poster Prize!

Our doctoral student Haiqian Yu has been awarded the Elsevier Best Poster Prize at the 3rd International PSE Congress on Natural Compounds in Cancer Prevention and Therapy. Haiqian is working in the undefinedInstitute of Pharmaceutical Biology under supervision of Prof. Dr. Peter Proksch. At the PSE Congress Haiqian presented a poster of his work concerning "Azaphilone derivatives from the fungus Coniella fragariae inhibit NF-κB activation and reduce tumor cell migration".

Congratulation to Haiqian!

The congress of the Phytochemical Society of Europe [PSE] took place in Naples, Italy, from Sept 4 to 7 2018. More information about this conference you can find undefinedhere


Congratulations Gereon!

At the beginning of May 2018 Gereon Sommer defended his doctoral thesis successfully. Gereon worked in the group of Thomas J.J. Müller on the Masuda-Borylation-Suzuki-Coupling as an efficient work tool for the synthesis of active agents.

Congratulations!


Congratulations Anja!

Anja Weber née Ullrich, who worked in undefinedJörg Pietruszka's research group, defended her doctoral thesis in the field of natural compound/active agent synthesis successfullyon April the 10th 2018.

Congratulations!


Identification of phomoxanthone A as a mitochondrial toxin

New insights in the mode of action of phomoxanthone A (PXA) were given in the new publication of Böhler et al. 2018. In close collaboration with several groups from Heinrich Heine University, KU Leuven, University of Tübingen and UCLA the mycotoxin PXA, derived from the endophytic fungus Phomopsis longicolla, was identified as an mitochondrial toxin by causing disruption of mitochondrial function, IMM fragmentation and cristae disruption leading to the release of pro-apoptotic factors and thus to apoptosis.

The article was published in Cell Death & Disease:

Böhler, P., Stuhldreier, F., Anand, R., Kondadi A.K., Schlütermann, D., Berleth, N., Deitersen, J., Wallot-Hieke, N., Wu, W., Frank, M., Niemann, H., Wesbuer, E., Barbian, A., Luyten, T., Parys, J.B., Weidtkamp-Peters, S., Borchardt, A., Reichert, A., Pena-Blanco, A., Garcia-Saez, A.J., Itskanov, S., van der Bliek, A.M., Proksch, P., Wesselborg, S., Stork, B. (2018) The mycotoxin phomoxanthone A disturbs the form and function of the inner mitochondrial membrane. Cell Death and Disease 9:286

Link to publication


Nicola Porta wins Poster Award at 32. Molecular Modelling Workshop 2018

We are happy to announce that our PhD fellow Nicola Porta, who is working in Holger Gohlke's group at the undefinedInstitute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, received a Poster Award for his work on the "Impact of allosteric inhibitors on MRSA pyruvate kinase conformational dynamics" at the 32nd Molecular Modelling Workshop 2018 in Erlangen.

Congratulations!

More information about the Molecular Modelling Workshop 2018 you can find here: https://mmws2018.mgms-ds.de/


GRK2158 Symposium

The first internal Symposium of Research Training Group 2158 was held from 20th till 22nd of September in "Schloß Mickeln" in Düsseldorf. This event was a perfect occasion for all doctoral students and principal investigators to come together, get connected, discuss and forward their projects.

All doctoral students presented their projects via oral presentations and posters.

Special highlights were the talks of the invited speakers Prof. Dr. Wenhan Lin from Peking University, China, Dr. Min Li-Weber from German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and Prof. Dr. Mark Brönstrup from Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig.

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