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Novel Tools for Probing the Signaling-metabolism-interface: Inositol Polyphosphates and more
Cells are able to constantly process information about their environment and their internal status via highly regulated signaling networks. Since deregulation of cellular information transfer is associated with a wide range of diseases, a detailed annotation of signaling events in healthy and diseased states can highlight new avenues for therapeutic intervention. One group of messengers of particular interest to our group are inositol poly- and pyrophosphates (InsPs and PP-InsPs). These molecules have emerged as central regulators of cell homeostasis, and genetic studies in mice and humans implicate PP-InsPs in a host of processes, including weight gain, fertility, longevity, and tumor metastasis. However, it is not well understood how these molecules exert their effects at the molecular level. Using a multi-disciplinary approach involving techniques from organic chemistry, chemical genetics and genetics, molecular biology, and proteomics, our goal is to decipher the concrete signaling functions of InsPs and PP-InsPs and ultimately guide the development of new therapeutic strategies against cancer, diabetes and obesity.
Inositol phosphates - The more, the merrier - an online conference.
If you are interested in learning more about the researchers and current topics in the inositol polyphosphate field, we hold an annual online conference all about these interesting and understudied cellular messengers. For more information visit the conference website (Link).
People
Dorothea grew up in the most beautiful city in Germany: Hamburg. She went to college at the University of Wuerzburg and did her Diploma work at UC Berkeley. She decided she liked the United States for many reasons that include Thanksgiving (and also German beers are overrated), so she stayed at Berkeley for her Ph.D. She worked in the Raymond and Bergman labs, studying host-guest systems and their application to catalysis. She then moved across the Bay to UCSF, where she joined the Shokat lab to investigate signal transduction pathways. She started her academic career at Princeton University but recently relocated to the FMP, Berlin.
Growing up in the beautiful saxon countryside and graduating in Biotechnologie (B.Sc.) in a small town called Zittau, Lena decided it was time for some excitement. Berlin was calling and Lena, preferring good old work in a lab over dry studies, moved to start her first job at Jerini AG searching for small peptide drug compounds. When the company was sold (L. has nothing to do with that) Lena, figuring industry business was not her kind of thing, changed to academia and worked in N. Rajewsky's Lab at the MDC, focussing on microRNA studies in C. elegans, followed by the Haucke Lab at the FMP. She is happy to join the Fiedler Lab to support the biological part of the group and learn something about those phosphates everyone keeps talking about. Lena loves high mountains, swing dancing, cinema and eating a proper steak in Argentina.
Originally from Rosario, Argentina, Jaime obtained his Licentiate degree in Chemistry from the National University of Rosario. Upon completion, he moved to the UK to pursue a PhD in Chemical Biology at Durham University under the supervision of Prof Patrick G. Steel. His research focused on organic syntheses and chemoproteomics, developing activity-based probes to target potentially druggable serine hydrolases in Leishmaniases, a group of parasitic Neglected Tropical Diseases. After obtaining his PhD, Jaime continued as a PDRA, working on different chemical biology target- and phenotypic-based drug discovery projects focused in Leishmaniasis and Chagas Disease. Jaime relocated to Berlin in 2023 and joined the Fiedler group, where he is developing activity-based probes to elucidate the targets of inositol polyphosphates, and working on a biosensor for specific inositol polyphosphates. Outside of science, he enjoys outdoor activities such as running and hiking, as well as playing the violin and taking photographs.
Meike was born and raised in Aalen, a small town in southern Germany, where she has tasted the best pretzels so far. She combined her passion for food and chemistry and studied food chemistry at TU Munich (B. Sc.). Eager to learn more about organic chemistry and biochemistry, she changed to LMU Munich for a master program in biochemistry. Here she also got introduced to chemical biology for the first time. Meike finished her studies with a M. Sc. in toxicology from TU Kaiserslautern. She then joined the Fiedler lab for her PhD to unite her interests in metabolism, analytics and chemical biology. In her spare time, Meike likes to do sports (e.g. bouldering, hiking, circuit training, yoga or pilates), explores the culinary world and spends time with friends and family.
Simon was born in the West German city of Essen and was raised in Bochum, where he finished school in 2013. After finding out that there are other cities with currywurst he moved to Berlin and started studying chemistry at Humboldt-University. He did his bachelor thesis in the Seitz group where he studied a modification for FIT-PNA probes. After his research internship at BAM in the group of Michael Weller, Simon decided to join the Fiedler group for his master thesis (and subsequently his PhD). In his spare time Simon enjoys dancing salsa and visiting football matches.
Arif was born and raised in Berlin. Ever since he was in high school, he was fascinated by biological processes in the human body. After realizing that nearly everything is based on chemistry, he decided to study chemistry at Humboldt-University, where he did his Bachelor thesis on chemoselective antibody modification in the Hackenberger group. After an internship in the medicinal chemistry department of the Bayer AG, he was keen to combine chemistry and biochemistry, so he joined the Fiedler group for his Master thesis. After his Master thesis, he was seeking for a new adventure outside Germany, so he joined the Novartis AG for a six month internship in Switzerland. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in the Fiedler group, where he is investigating the chemical pyrophosphorylation of pharmacologically relevant proteins. In his spare time Arif enjoys hiking, drinking black tea with an excessive amount of sugar, spending time with his family and friends, and spending way too much time to improve his Muay Thai skills.
Björn was born and raised in Kassel before he started his bachelor’s studies in chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin in 2016. Subsequently, he was drawn to the Philipps-University of Marburg for his master’s studies to learn more about medicinal chemistry, for example, in the group of Prof. Mathias Senge at Trinity College Dublin during an Erasmus program. His master’s thesis with Prof. Olalla Vázquez focusing on the synthesis and analysis of fluorescent bacteria markers was followed by a six-month voluntary industry internship with Nuvisan Pharma Services in Berlin where he gained insights into drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics. In July 2022, Björn joined the Fiedler group as a PhD candidate to investigate synthetic strategies for peptide- and protein-polyphosphorylation. Besides the lab work, he enjoys playing the bass guitar, listening to podcasts, and visiting the gym.
Sarah grew up in a small town in Lower Saxony called Dinklage. After school, she stayed for a voluntary year in a children's sports club back home. Then she decided to move from the flat north of Germany to the idyllic, hilly university town of Tübingen to study pharmacy. During her studies, her scientific interest deepened and she became particularly interested in the chemical and biological aspects of pharmacology. Therefore, she additionally completed a master's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies. Following, she wrote her master's thesis in the field of natural product chemistry, based on her interest in analytics, among other things. She then joined the Fiedler group and is excited to be part of the group's multidisciplinary research approach around the metabolism of inositol poly- and pyrophosphates. In her spare time, she likes to do sports, especially ball sports. She has done different sports e.g. handball, basketball and water polo in the last years and is looking forward to the great possibilities in Berlin. She also enjoys baking, board games and playing the piano from time to time.
Abhirup was born and raised in Kolkata, India, which is known for its rich culture and love for football. Trying to be cool, he opted to pursue a BS+MS dual degree in Chemistry at IIT Bombay, where he worked on developing C-H functionalization pathways under Prof. Debabrata Maiti. But at the end of his studies, he felt that, just like Jon Snow, he knew nothing. So then, he decided to join the MSc program at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. There, he loved how complex biological processes can be rationally explained by the principles of organic chemistry and be manipulated by small molecules. So naturally, he was drawn toward chemical biology and did his master's thesis under Prof. David Margulies, where he designed fluorescent bacterial probes for high-throughput screening applications. After having a fair share of hummus, he moved further west towards Berlin to join the Fiedler group for his PhD and is now focused on designing photoaffinity probes to identify novel protein targets of inositol polyphosphates. In his spare time, he likes to think about food, play badminton, and go hiking.
Selin comes from Turkey and she attained her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. Afterwards, she started her Master’s program in Biochemistry at the University of Bonn. She discovered her interest in mass spectrometry-based projects with a lab rotation in the Winter lab. Therefore, Selin decided to stay for the Master’s thesis and worked on profiling human lysosomal proteome using mass spectrometry. She joined the Fiedler group as a PhD student in 2024 and is now focused on developing a workflow to decipher unknown post-translational modification targets. When Selin is not in the lab, she likes running and hiking with her friends.
Atharva was born and raised in one of the most liveliest cities in India: Pune. Being a nature and sci-fi movies enthusiast, he was drawn to the beautiful and fascinating field of biology. That is why he decided to study microbiology for his Bachelor’s degree which, according to him, was one of the few fantastic decisions in his adulthood. Being an adventurous person, Atharva chose to do his master’s in the foreign and beautiful city of Bremen. He did his master’s thesis at Prof Janine Kirstein’s lab where he worked on the role of chaperones in neurodegenerative disorders using an awesome animal: C. elegans. Since he also loved studying chemistry in his bachelor’s courses, next Atharva wanted to do research on the interface of biology and chemistry. Serendipitously, he came across the Fiedler group and having loved the cool research and the amazing people, he joined our lab for his PhD. In his free time, Atharva likes to wander in nature, wall-climbing, playing badminton, reading about the astronomy, and fantasising about human colonisation of the red planet.
Annika grew up in New Jersey (USA) and Basel (Switzerland). In high school, she discovered her love for chemistry (mostly just mixing things) and moved to St Andrews, Scotland to pursue her undergraduate degree. She completed her placement year in the Medicinal Chemistry department at F. Hoffmann-La Roche and then returned to St Andrews to complete her masters in the Westwood group. Annika came back to Roche in Basel to do another internship at Roche, synthesizing oligonucleotides in high-throughput fashion and working to automize and optimize the upstream and downstream production processes. Now she is a Ph.D. Student in the Fiedler group to investigate the mechanism of protein pyrophosphorylation by biochemical methods. Just like every other Swiss resident, Annika loves hiking in the mountains and eating chocolate. Other than that she is training for triathlons, playing board games, discovering new restaurants in Berlin and hoping to start learning to play the electric guitar.
Cansu was born and raised in Istanbul, Türkiye. She studied chemistry (B.Sc.) and molecular biology and genetics (B.Sc.) at Bogazici University in Istanbul. She participated in an Erasmus+ mobility program in 2019 and studied chemistry at TU Munich. After the Erasmus experience she decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Germany. Cansu is currently a master student in chemistry at FU Berlin and a member of the Fiedler Group as a working student since October 2023. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, travelling, and exploring new hobbies.
PhD student 2018 – 2023
PhD student 2010 – 2015
PhD student 2013 – 2018
Postdoc 2017
PhD student 2010 – 2015
Postdoc 2011 – 2012
Postdoc/Lab Manager 2011 – 2015
PhD student 2017 – 2022
Postdoc 2013 – 2015
PhD student 2015 – 2020
Postdoc 2016 – 2020
PhD student 2019 – 2024
PhD student 2012 – 2017
Postdoc 2022 – 2024
Postdoc 2016 – 2018
Postdoc 2017 – 2021
PhD student 2018 – 2023
PhD student 2012 – 2018
PhD student 2015 – 2019
PhD student 2020 – 2024
PhD student 2018 – 2023
Postdoc 2012 – 2015
PhD student 2010 – 2015
PhD student 2011 – 2016
The group is always looking for motivated PhD students and PostDocs. We also provide opportunities to conduct research for a Master or Bachelor Thesis. Please send applications, containing a short letter, a CV and two contacts for a letter of recommendation to Dorothea Fiedler (Email: fiedler@fmp-berlin.de).