Focusing on mRNA metabolism

The research group "mRNA Metabolism" headed by Prof. Dr. Andreas Kulozik focuses on RNA biology in common diseases, such as hemoglobin diseases, thromboses, inflammatory diseases and pediatric cancers. In this context, the researchers are working closely with researchers led byProf. Dr. Matthias Hentze at the European Molecular Biology Laboratoy (EMBL) as part of the MMPU (Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit).

We are particularly interested in the mechanism of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD, degradation of mRNAs with a premature stop codon), which acts as a quality control to limit the synthesis of defective proteins, and in the regulation of 3'-end processing of mRNAs in cellular stress responses.

Our group uses cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and transcriptome- and proteome-based techniques to investigate the function of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in hematological diseases and in cancer and the effect of drugs on these proteins. Ultimately, we hope to identify entry points in the molecular origins of pediatric diseases that will allow us to develop strategies for the therapy of these diseases.

1. Gabriele Neu-Yilik, Etienne Raimondeau, Boris Eliseev, Lahari Yeramala, Beate Amthor, Aurélien Deniaud, Karine Huard, Kathrin Kerschgens, Matthias W. Hentze, Christiane Schaffitzel, Andreas E. Kulozik EMBO J. 2017 Sep 12. Dual function of UPF3B in early and late translation termination,  doi: 10.15252/embj.201797079, PMID:28899899

2. Haberman N, Huppertz I, Attig J, König J, Wang Z, Hauer C, Hentze MW, Kulozik AE, Le Hir H, Curk T, Sibley CR, Zarnack K, Ule J. Genome Biol. 2017 Jan 16.  Insights into the design and interpretation of iCLIP experiments. doi: 10.1186/s13059-016-1130-x. PMID: 28093074

3. Hauer C, Sieber J, Schwarzl T, Hollerer I, Curk T, Alleaume AM, Hentze MW, Kulozik AE. Cell Rep. 2016 Aug 9.  Exon Junction Complexes Show a Distributional Bias toward Alternatively Spliced mRNAs and against mRNAs Coding for Ribosomal Proteins. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.06.096. Epub 2016 Jul 28. PMID: 27475226

4. Hollerer I, Curk T, Haase B, Benes V, Hauer C, Neu-Yilik G, Bhuvanagiri M, Hentze MW, Kulozik AE. RNA. 2016 Jul 12. The differential expression of alternatively polyadenylated transcripts is a common stress-induced response mechanism that modulates mammalian mRNA expression in a quantitative and qualitative fashion. PMID: 27407180

5. Sieber, J., Hauer, C., Bhuvanagiri, M., Leicht, S., Krijgsveld, J., Neu-Yilik, G., Hentze, M.W., Kulozik, A.E. Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 2016 Feb 20  Proteomic analysis reveals branch-specific regulation of the unfolded protein response by nonsense-mediated mRNA decay pii: mcp.M115.054056.

6. Danckwardt S, Gantzert AS, Macher-Goeppinger S, Probst HC, Gentzel M, Wilm M, Gröne HJ, Schirmacher P, Hentze MW, Kulozik AE. Mol Cell. 2011 Feb 4 p38 MAPK controls prothrombin expression by regulated RNA 3' end processing. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2010.12.032. PMID: 21292162

7. Danckwardt S, Hentze MW, Kulozik AE.
J Mol Med (Berl). 2013 Aug 17. Pathologies at the nexus of blood coagulation and inflammation: thrombin in hemostasis, cancer, and beyond. doi: 10.1007/s00109-013-1074-5. PMID: 23955016

8. Bhuvanagiri M, Lewis J, Putzker K, Becker JP, Leicht S, Krijgsveld J, Batra R, Turnwald B, Jovanovic B, Hauer C, Sieber J, Hentze MW, Kulozik AE.
EMBO Mol Med. 2014 Oct 15. 5-azacytidine inhibits nonsense-mediated decay in a MYC-dependent fashion.
pii: e201404461. doi: 10.15252/emmm.201404461.

 

Team members
  • Prof. Dr. Andreas Kulozik (Group leader)
  • PD Dr. rer. nat. Gabriele Neu-Yilik (Staff scientist)
  • Dr. Michael Backlund (Postdoc)
  • Dr. Daria Lavysh (Postdoc)
  • Dr. rer.nat. Yang Zhou (Postdoc)
  • Jonas Becker (PhD - science)
  • Annika Brosig (PhD - science)
  • Beate Amthor (Technical assistant)
  • Nicole Dickemann (Technical assistant)
  • Margit Happich (Technical assistant)
  • Gabriele Tolle (Technical assistant)

Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Kulozik, PhD

Director "Clinical Pediatric Oncology"

Postal address:
Clinic for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology, and Immunology
Center for Child and Adolescent Medicine
Jutta Mattern
Im Neuenheimer Feld 430
D-69120 Heidelberg
Germany