Prof. Dr. Kirsten Jung

The Jung lab has a long-standing interest in stress response and transmembrane signal transduction in the enterobacterium Escherichia coli, the marine bacterium Vibrio harveyi and the entomopathogen Photorhabdus luminescens. The work is focused on the structural and functional analysis of membrane-integrated receptors and secondary transporters. Moreover, the group aims to understand the regulatory network of bacterial cells by using combined experimental and systems biological approaches. Recently, the Jung lab started to analyze stress dependent gene expression at single cell level within a population. In addition, the cooperativity and individuality within bacterial populations in the context of metabolism-based chemical communication under various external conditions is quantified.

Students in our laboratory can expect to gain experience in a wide range of techniques. Most research projects will include the following methods in biochemistry (e.g. membrane protein preparation, protein purification, enzymatic assays, electrophoresis, DNase I footprinting), molecular genetics (e.g. cloning, site-directed and random mutagenesis, construction of reporter strains, RT-PCR), in cell biology (e.g. fluorescence microscopy), and in classical genetics (e.g. Tn10 and random mutagenesis, transformation, transduction).

Primary Technique(s): structural and functional analysis

Model Organism(s): the enterobacterium Escherichia coli, the marine bacterium Vibrio harveyi, the entomopathogen Photorhabdus luminescens