HoT-Aim 2.0 - High-end optical technologies for the analysis of intracellular membrane affecting infection processes
The project HoT-AiM 2.0 combines (bio-)molecular methods with high-resolution microscopy to understand infection processes by human pathogenic fungi. In particular, such human pathogenic fungi play an important role as pathogens in immunosuppressed patients. At the same time, both the diagnosis of life-threatening invasive fungal infections and their therapy are currently unsatisfactory. The lethality rate is therefore correspondingly high, depending on the patient population and fungal pathogen. There are now many indications that membrane changes caused by pathogens represent a widespread pathogenicity or immunevasion mechanism. The associated dynamic structural changes of membranes in both host and fungal cells have not yet been understood and cannot be investigated with the required spatial resolution using current technologies.
The aim of HoT-AiM 2.0 is to investigate infectious processes, such as pore formation, down to the molecular level in the range of a few nanometers, using genetically accessible model fungal systems and model membranes in controllable environments. To this end, correlative microscopy technologies are being developed that enable dynamic structure elucidation combined with the corresponding membrane properties in the smallest dimensions.
Participating Scientists
Prof. Dr. Volker Deckert
Project Coordinator
Leibniz-IPHT • Nanoscopy
Prof. Dr. Rainer Heintzmann
Principal Investigator
Leibniz-IPHT • Microscopy
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hube
Principal Investigator
Leibniz-HKI • Microbial Pathogenicity Mechanisms
Annika König
Doctoral student
Leibniz-HKI • Mikrobial Pathogenicity Mechanisms
Berit Frizzy Porsche
Doctoral student
FSU • Mikrobial Communication