Petra Schwille

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Petra Schwille

Petra Schwille (born January 25, 1968 in Sindelfingen ) is a German biophysicist . She is director of the “Cellular and Molecular Biophysics” department at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry . Schwille is also the coordinator of the large Max Planck research consortium "MaxSynBio" on synthetic biology .

Live and act

Petra Schwille attended the Hölderlin-Gymnasium in Lauffen am Neckar , where she graduated from high school. She then studied physics from 1987 to 1989 at the University of Stuttgart and from 1989 to 1993 physics and philosophy at the University of Göttingen . In 1993 she completed her diploma in physics with a thesis at the Institute for Medical Physics and Biophysics at the University of Göttingen. Schwille then worked on her doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (MPI-bpc) in Göttingen with Nobel Prize winner Manfred Eigen . From 1994 to 1996 she received a DAAD research grant at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and received her doctorate in 1996 from the Technical University of Braunschweig with her dissertation on fluorescence correlation spectroscopy : analysis of biochemical systems at the single molecule level .

After completing her doctorate, she worked from 1997 to 1999 as a postdoc at the Department for Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University , Ithaca, NY under Watt W. Webb, supported by a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation . From 1999 to 2002 she was a group leader for experimental biophysics at the MPI-bpc in Göttingen , awarded the Biofuture Prize of the Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF) . During this time she received the lecturer's grant from the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie Deutschland.

From 2002 to 2012, Petra Schwille was Professor of Biophysics at BIOTEC at TU Dresden . In 2005 she was appointed a Max Planck Fellow at the MPI for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden. In 2011 she was appointed a scientific member of the Max Planck Society, combined with an appointment at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich. There she is director of the department "Cellular and Molecular Biophysics".

Petra Schwille is married to the Protestant pastor Ulrich Braun and has three daughters.

Research priorities

Petra Schwille developed fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy in 1996 and two-photon cross-correlation spectroscopy in 2000 . These methods can be used to analyze the dynamics and interactions of fluorescence-labeled molecules at the single-molecule level in solution as well as living cells and organisms. Applications range from the study of enzymatic activity to the analysis of protein-protein interactions and mechanistic studies of membrane binding and transformation. In addition to the development of highly sensitive biophysical methods, Petra Schwille has been addressing the question of what a minimal biological system could look like for several years. Her research on the synthetic biology of minimal systems is closely linked to the question of the conditions under which life can or did arise in general. Important contributions from the research department are the reconstitution of simple protein-based pattern formation and membrane transformation, which play an important role in cell division.

Memberships (selection)

Awards and honors (selection)

Important publications

  • B. Ramm, P. Glock, J. Mücksch, P. Blumhardt, DA García-Soriano, M. Heymann, P. Schwille: The MinDE system is a generic spatial cue for membrane protein distribution in vitro. In: Nat Comm. Volume 9, 2018, p. 3942.
  • HG Franquelim, A. Khmelinskaia, JP Sobczak, H. Dietz, P. Schwille: Membrane sculpting by curved DNA origami scaffolds. In: Nature Comm. Volume 9, 2018, p. 811.
  • P. Schwille: How Simple Could Life Be? In: Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. Volume 56, 2017, pp. 10998-11002.
  • SK Vogel, F. Greiss, A. Khmelinskaia, P. Schwille: Control of lipid domain organization by a biomimetic contractile actomyosin cortex. In: eLife. Volume 6, 2017, p. E24350.
  • K. Zieske, P. Schwille: Reconstitution of self-organizing protein gradients as spatial cues in cell-free systems. In: eLife. 2014. doi: 10.7554 / eLife.03949
  • K. Zieske, P. Schwille: Reconstitution of Pole-to-Pole Oscillations of Min Proteins in Microengineered Polydimethylsiloxane Compartments. In: Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. Volume 52, 2013, pp. 459-462.
  • P. Schwille: Bottom-up synthetic biology: engineering in a tinkerer's world. In: Science. Volume 333, No. 6047, 2011.
  • J. Ries, SR Yu, M. Burkhardt, M. Brand, P. Schwille: Modular scanning FCS quantifies receptor-ligand interactions in living multicellular organisms. In: Nature Methods . Volume 6, 2009, pp. 643-645.
  • AJ García-Sáez, J. Ries, M. Orzáez, E. Pérez-Payà, P. Schwille: Membrane promotes tBID interaction with BCL (XL). In: Nature Structural & Molecular Biology . Volume 16, 2009, pp. 1178-1185.
  • M. Loose, E. Fischer-Friedrich, J. Ries, K. Kruse, P. Schwille: Spatial Regulators for Bacterial Cell Division Self-Organize into Surface Waves in Vitro. In: Science . Volume 320, 2008, pp. 789-792.
  • SA Kim, KG Heinze, P. Schwille: Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy in living cells. In: Nature Methods. Volume 4, 2007, pp. 963-973.
  • K. Bacia, SA Kim, P. Schwille: Fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy in living cells. In: Nature Methods. Volume 3, 2006, pp. 83-89.
  • P. Schwille, U. Haupts, S. Maiti, WW Webb: Molecular dynamics in living cells observed by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy with one- and two-photon excitation. In: Biophys J. Volume 77, 1999, pp. 2251-2265.
  • P. Schwille, FJ Meyer-Almes, R. Rigler: Dual-color fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy for multicomponent diffusional analysis in solution. In: Biophys J. Volume 72, 1997, pp. 1878-1886.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see MaxSynBio: Ways to synthesize a cell from non-living components , in: Angewandte Chemie 2018, 130, 13566–13577, online, not free of charge . Schwille is one of the two coordinators here together with Kai Sundmacher , both of whom are also the main authors of the article.
  2. ↑ From natural to artificial cells - Petra Schwille becomes the new director at the MPI for Biochemistry. October 7, 2011, archived from the original on April 30, 2013 ; Retrieved February 27, 2012 .
  3. ↑ "I have always been able to do physics - and bio has always interested me" . March 16, 2010. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  4. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. Petra Schwille (with picture) at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on July 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences elects seven new members to the Science Information Service (idw-online.de), accessed on June 14, 2013
  6. ↑ Highest endowed German research award for biophysicist Professor Petra Schwille from the TU Dresden. TU Dresden, December 2, 2009, accessed on November 5, 2019 .
  7. ^ Braunschweig Research Prize , accessed on December 1, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Schwille, Petra
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Sindelfingen