Curriculum vitae

 

Prof. Dr. Jörg Stülke

 

Professor of Microbiology

 

 

* 1990 Diploma (Biology), Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald

 

* 1994 Dissertation (Dr. rer. nat.), Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald

 

* 1994 – 1996 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institut Pasteur, Paris

 

* 1996 – 2003 Group leader at the Chair of Microbiology, University Erlangen-Nürnberg

 

* 2000 Habilitation (Microbiology), University Erlangen-Nürnberg

 

* since 2003 Professor of General Microbiology, Head of the Department of General Microbiology at the Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, University of Göttingen

 

 

Major Research Interests:

 

Our group is interested in the regulation of carbon and nitrogen metabolism in Gram-positive bacteria. We are following global ("post-genomic") and gene-specific approaches. Metabolism in Bacillus subtilis is studied by transcriptomics, protein arrays, and metabolome and fluxome analyses. Our specific interests are focussed on two key pathways: glycolysis and glutamate biosynthesis, the decisive link between carbon and nitrogen metabolism. We are studying three regulatory mechanisms of glycolysis: a controlled protein-RNA interaction, site-specific mRNA degradation and proteolysis. We discovered recently that genes for glutamate biosynthesis in B. subtilis are only expressed if rich carbon sources are available and we identified a regulatory protein-protein interaction that govern this sugar induction. In another project, we study the regulation of gene expression in the pathogenic bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This is highly interesting because this bacterium is an important cause of pneumonia. Moreover, M. pneumoniae is one of the organisms with the smallest genetic equipment that is capable of independent life. Understanding M. pneumoniae means understanding life! So far, we have studied one of the few regulatory proteins of M. pneumoniae and determined its crystal structure. Interestingly, the mode of action of this protein is opposed to that of homologous proteins from other bacteria: a hint to the parasitic lifestyle of M. pneumoniae! We are now starting to study the metabolic responses of M. pneumoniae to the infection process. If we understand what happens upon infection, we may subsequently try to interrupt this chain of events.