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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Wachten

Member, Steering-Committee Member

Institute of Innate Immunity

Venusberg - Campus 1 53127 Bonn

dwachten@uni-bonn.de

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We aim to understand how cilia work and what their function is. Cilia are subcellular compartments that protrude from the surface of almost every mammalian cell. Cilia can be grouped into two major classes: a) primary cilia, which are immotile and b) motile cilia, which are also called flagella. A prominent example for the latter are sperm flagella. Ciliary dysfunction leads to severe diseases commonly referred to as ciliopathies. They comprise e.g. polycystic kidney disease, obesity, blindness, and infertility. However, the signaling pathways controlling ciliary function are ill-defined. To study ciliary signaling with high spatial and temporal precision, we combine optogenetics and genetically-encoded biosensors with high-resolution microscopy, mouse genetics, and biochemistry. This multidisciplinary approach allows not only to investigate ciliary signaling, but can be applied to any subcellular compartment to study its function with spatial and temporal resolution.

Dagmar Wachten

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Recent publications

  • The neuronal cilium - a highly diverse and dynamic organelle involved in sensory detection and neuromodulation.

    Trends in neurosciences

    Authors: Nathalie Jurisch-Yaksi, Dagmar Wachten, Jay Gopalakrishnan

  • Adipocyte precursor-derived NRG1 promotes resistance to FGFR inhibition in urothelial carcinoma.

    Cancer research

    Authors: Sana Hosni, Viola Kilian, Niklas Klümper, Daniela Gabbia, Katharina Sieckmann, Dillon Corvino, Anja Winkler, Miriam Saponaro, Karin Woersdoerfer, Doris Schmidt, Oliver Hahn, Ilaria Zanotto, Marina Bertlich, Marieta Toma, Tobias Bald, Markus Eckstein, Michael Hölzel, Matthias Geyer, Manuel Ritter, Dagmar Wachten, Sara De Martin, Abdullah Alajati

  • Human fertilization in vivo and in vitro requires the CatSper channel to initiate sperm hyperactivation.

    The Journal of clinical investigation

    Authors: Samuel Young, Christian Schiffer, Alice Wagner, Jannika Patz, Anton Potapenko, Leonie Herrmann, Verena Nordhoff, Tim Pock, Claudia Krallmann, Birgit Stallmeyer, Albrecht Röpke, Michelina Kierzek, Cristina Biagioni, Tao Wang, Lars Haalck, Dirk Deuster, Jan N Hansen, Dagmar Wachten, Benjamin Risse, Hermann M Behre, Stefan Schlatt, Sabine Kliesch, Frank Tüttelmann, Christoph Brenker, Timo Strünker

All publications by Prof. Dr. Dagmar Wachten