Dr. Markus Zweckstetter
Professor
Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases
German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen)
Germany
Biography
Markus Zweckstetter studied physics at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. He wrote his Ph.D thesis under the supervision of Tad Holak at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried and received his Ph.D from the Technical University of Munich. Subsequently, he worked from 1999 to 2001 as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Adrian Bax’s group at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. He has headed the research group “Structure determination of proteins using NMR” at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry since 2001. Since June 2012 he is heading the senior research group “Structural Biology in Dementia” at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Göttingen. Since December 2012 he is also professor at the University Medical School, Göttingen.
Research Interest
The research performed in the research group “Structural Biology in Dementia” tackles the structural biology challenges faced today in dementia and neurodegeneration that is intrinsically disordered proteins, protein aggregates, big proteins, nucleosome complexes, proteins in membranes. The work builds on our expertise in structural biology, especially via the use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and biophysics. In addition, we are interested in the structure-based design and optimization of small molecules that shall interact with specific target proteins as biomarkers, for imaging purposes or treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Publications
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ß-synuclein aggregates and induces neurodegeneration in dopaminergic neurons. Taschenberger G, Toloe J, Tereshchenko J, Akerboom J, Wales P, Benz R, Becker S, Outeiro T, Looger L, Bähr M, Zweckstetter M, Kügler S. Ann Neurol. 2013 Mar 28.
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Hsp90-tau complex reveals molecular basis for specificity in chaperone action. Karagöz GE, Duarte AM, Akoury E, Ippel H, Biernat J, Morán Luengo T, Radli M, Didenko T, Nordhues BA, Veprintsev DB, Dickey CA, Mandelkow E, Zweckstetter M, Boelens R, Madl T, Rüdiger SG. Cell. 2014 Feb 27;156(5):963-74
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Structure of the mitochondrial translocator protein in complex with a diagnostic ligand. Jaremko L, Jaremko M, Giller K, Becker S, Zweckstetter M.>/p> Science. 2014 Mar 21;343(6177):1363-6.
