The Center for NanoScience at LMU Munich brings together research from physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and medicine, all focused on the nanometer scale. Professors, junior group leaders, postdocs, and graduate students actively engage within this dynamic network, exchanging ideas and forging new research collaborations. An PhD opening is now available in the lab of Prof. Claudia Veigel (Cell Physiology, Medical Faculty at LMU Munich). The large family of myosin motor proteins fulfills a myriad of tasks in mammalian health and disease, including in cancers and neuro-degenerative diseases. These tasks range from muscle contraction to intracellular membrane trafficking and sensory functions in mammalian hearing. Understanding their specific functions in the cell, requires in vitro model systems to be established at the single molecule level.
The aim of this PhD thesis is to investigate the interactions of the motor proteins with their cargo membranes. The following techniques will be used:
· Single molecule structural studies using cryo-electron microscopy
· High-resolution single molecule, optical tweezers-based mechanical studies
· Interferometric scattering microscopy
· Fluorescence microscopy techniques including confocal, TIRF, FRAP, super-resolution STORM
· Molecular biology and biochemical techniques Master’s degree in Physics, Biophysics, Biochemistry, Biotechnology TV-L E13 75% - earliest entry date: 202501.01.23 - up to 4 years