Research Training Group 1459
The interdisciplinary Research Training Group (GRK) 1459 “Sorting and Interactions between Proteins
of Subcellular Compartments” was founded in 2008 and consists of scientists from the University
Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, the Institute of Biochemistry at the University Kiel, and the
Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. Eleven PhD students and five MD
students are funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The general topic of the
Research Training Group is sorting and transport of selected proteins within the Golgi apparatus and
endosomal compartments. Missorted proteins may lead to loss of function in their target organelles,
which may affect the wellbeing of the cell and the organism as a whole. By focussing on selected
model proteins, basic mechanisms of the biogenesis of intracellular compartments as well as the
balance of membrane transport between organelles and the interplay between cytosolic and
membrane proteins will be investigated. The majority of projects address sorting and transport
processes under pathological conditions in cells derived from patients or mouse models of human
diseases or cells infected by bacteria or in parasite cells.
The PhD and MD students go through a three year curriculum of academic as well as non-academic
courses in molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, infectiology, microbiology, and molecular
biomedicine. The Research Training Group offers a continuous educational program including monthly
seminars with leading international guest scientist (among others J. Rothman, S. Schmid, J. Nunnari,
J. Bonifacino, K. Simons, A. Helenius, T. Rapoport, R. Jahn, G. Warren, D. Owen, and S. Pfeffer),
lectures on “Molecular Cell Biology of Subcellular Compartments”, project-specific practical courses,
annual retreat with external reviewers, a three month scientific cooperative stay abroad and the
organization of an international symposium every two years.
This year the PhD students are preparing the 3
rd
International Symposium on “Protein Trafficking in
Health and Disease” (
. The meeting will take place from
September 10
th
to 12
th
2014
in Hamburg, Germany.
The graduates of the GRK 1459 invite PhD students and young postdocs from all over Europe to
come to Hamburg, meet leading scientists in the field of protein trafficking, establish contacts and
present and discuss their own projects.
GRK Members, February 2014
