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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

Website

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.

Recent publications

  • BBS8-dependent ciliary Hedgehog signaling governs cell fate in the white adipose tissue.

    The EMBO journal

    Authors: Katharina Sieckmann, Nora Winnerling, Dalila Juliana Silva Ribeiro, Seniz Yüksel, Ronja Kardinal, Lisa Maria Steinheuer, Fabian Frechen, Luis Henrique Corrêa, Geza Schermann, Christina Klausen, Nelli Blank-Stein, Jonas Schulte-Schrepping, Collins Osei-Sarpong, Matthias Becker, Lorenzo Bonaguro, Marc Beyer, Helen Louise May-Simera, Jelena Zurkovic, Christoph Thiele, Kevin Thurley, Lydia Sorokin, Carmen Ruiz de Almodovar, Elvira Mass, Dagmar Wachten

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  • Publisher Correction: Cold-induced expression of a truncated adenylyl cyclase 3 acts as rheostat to brown fat function.

    Nature metabolism

    Authors: Sajjad Khani, Hande Topel, Ronja Kardinal, Ana Rita Tavanez, Ajeetha Josephrajan, Bjørk Ditlev Marcher Larsen, Michael James Gaudry, Philipp Leyendecker, Nadia Meincke Egedal, Aylin Seren Güller, Natasa Stanic, Phillip M M Ruppert, Isabella Gaziano, Nils Rouven Hansmeier, Elena Schmidt, Paul Klemm, Lara-Marie Vagliano, Rainer Stahl, Fraser Duthie, Jens-Henning Krause, Ana Bici, Christoph Andreas Engelhard, Sabrina Gohlke, Peter Frommolt, Thorsten Gnad, Alvaro Rada-Iglesias, Marta Pradas-Juni, Tim Julius Schulz, Frank Thomas Wunderlich, Alexander Pfeifer, Alexander Bartelt, Martin Jastroch, Dagmar Wachten, Jan-Wilhelm Kornfeld

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  • A molecular mechanism to diversify Ca signaling downstream of Gs protein-coupled receptors.

    Nature communications

    Authors: Julian Brands, Sergi Bravo, Lars Jürgenliemke, Lukas Grätz, Hannes Schihada, Fabian Frechen, Judith Alenfelder, Cy Pfeil, Paul Georg Ohse, Suzune Hiratsuka, Kouki Kawakami, Luna C Schmacke, Nina Heycke, Asuka Inoue, Gabriele König, Alexander Pfeifer, Dagmar Wachten, Gunnar Schulte, Torsten Steinmetzer, Val J Watts, Jesús Gomeza, Katharina Simon, Evi Kostenis

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