Silke Wenzel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silke Wenzel
Silke Wenzel in August 2015

Silke Christine Wenzel (born March 3, 1977 in Kassel ; † February 2019 in Saarbrücken ) was a German chemist . She researched and taught at Saarland University (UdS) and at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) in Saarbrücken.

Life

Silke Wenzel studied chemistry from 1996 to 2001 at the University of Göttingen (diploma thesis at the Institute for Organic Chemistry in Axel Zeeck's group ) and received her doctorate in 2005 from the Technical University of Braunschweig on the subject of biosynthesis and heterologous expression of natural substances from myxobacteria . She wrote her dissertation in Rolf Müller's group at the Society for Biotechnological Research (GBF) in Braunschweig, and completed her work after a stay abroad at Oregon State University (Taifo Mahmud group) at the Institute for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the University of Saarland. In 2006, Silke Wenzel's doctoral thesis was awarded the Society for Biotechnological Research Prize. After completing her doctorate, she went to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver for a postdoc in 2007 on the basis of a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation . She then returned to Saarbrücken in 2008 and continued her research work as a scientist first at the Institute for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the University of Saarland and later at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, a location of the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research founded in 2009 , in the department " Microbial Natural Products ”by Rolf Müller.

According to a notice from relatives on her former website, Silke Wenzel died in February 2019.

Scientific work

Silke Wenzel's research work is characterized by the interdisciplinary interaction of methods from chemistry , molecular biology and biotechnology . Since the first publications, the focus has always been on researching the complex enzyme systems for the biosynthesis of microbial natural substances , based on the genetic information that these biosynthetic pathways encode in the genome of bacteria . Heterologous expression - that is, the transfer of larger sections of DNA from one bacterium to another with the aim of keeping the biosynthetic pathway encoded therein functional in the target organism - was the most important tool. This approach made it possible on the one hand to clarify the role of certain enzymes in biosynthesis through targeted gene knockout , and on the other hand to manipulate the biosynthetic pathway at the genetic level in order to produce structurally altered natural products or to improve their yield. In an early study, the biosynthesis of the lipopeptide myxochromid served as a biochemical model system. This molecule could be produced by means of heterologous expression in the bacterium Pseudomonas with increased yield compared to the natural myxobacterial producer Stigmatella aurantiaca - an early success of this technology, which received widespread attention in the specialist literature.

The work of Silke Wenzel also reflects the rapid further development of technologies for DNA sequencing and synthesis. The later publications deal with the possibility of constructing biosynthetic pathways using artificial genes and thus using bacteria as biosynthetic "factories" for the production of valuable natural substances. The natural product molecules researched by Silke Wenzel come mainly from myxobacteria and streptomycetes and are often characterized by potent biological activity , which gives them a current research interest - as well as relevance for the search for new drugs based on microbial natural substances. Examples are the antibiotics bottromycin, myxopyronin and griselimycin, the cytostatic epothilone or the phytotoxin coronatin. In one of the last published studies, a synthetic biosynthesis gene cluster was used to produce the cyclic peptide argyrin, which has antimicrobial, anti-tumor and immunosuppressive activities, with a yield that is more than 20 times higher than that of the natural producer Myxococcus xanthus .

Publications

Silke Wenzel has published more than 40 scientific publications, book chapters and articles in scientific journals. Furthermore, she was involved in the creation of a collection of teaching material on the subject of " Antibiotics : Race with the Germs".

Works (selection)

Book contributions

  • Host Organisms: Myxobacterium . Together with R. Müller. In: Industrial Biotechnology: Microorganisms , Wiley VCH, 2017, Chapter 12, pp. 453-485. doi: 10.1002 / 9783527807796.ch12
  • Antibiotics . Together with R. Müller. In: Industrielle Mikrobiologie, Springer, 2013, pp. 149–178. doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-8274-3040-3
  • Myxobacteria - unique microbial secondary metabolite factories . Together with R. Müller. In: Comprehensive Natural Products II: Chemistry and Biology , Elsevier, 2010, pp. 189-222. ISBN 978-0-08-045382-8

Magazine articles

  • Production optimization and biosynthesis revision of corallopyronin A, a potent anti-filarial antibiotic. Together with D. Pogorevc, F. Panter et al. Metabolic Engineering 2019, 55, pp. 201-211. doi: 10.1016 / j.ymben.2019.07.010
  • Biosynthesis and Heterologous Production of Argyrins. Together with D. Pogorevc, Y. Tang et al. ACS Synthetic Biology 2019, 8 (5), pp. 1121-1133. doi: 10.1021 / acssynbio.9b00023
  • Synthetic biology approaches and combinatorial biosynthesis towards heterologous lipopeptide production. Together with F. Yan, C. Burgard et al. Chemical Science 2018, 9, pp. 7510-7519. doi: 10.1039 / C8SC02046A
  • Heterologous production of myxobacterial α-pyrone antibiotics in Myxococcus xanthus. Together with H. Sucipto, D. Pogorevc et al. Metabolic Engineering 2017, 44, pp. 160-170. doi: 10.1016 / j.ymben.2017.10.004
  • Synthetic biology approaches to establish a heterologous production system for coronatines. Together with K. Gemperlein, M. Hoffmann et al. Metabolic Engineering 2017, 44, pp. 213-222. doi: 10.1016 / j.ymben.2017.09.009
  • Genomics-Guided Exploitation of Lipopeptide Diversity in Myxobacteria. Together with C. Burgard, N. Zaburannyi et al. ACS Chemical Biology 2017, 12, pp. 779-786. doi: 10.1021 / acschembio.6b00953
  • Biosynthesis of methyl-proline containing griselimycins, natural products with anti-tuberculosis activity. Together with P. Lukat, Y. Katsuyama et al. Chemical Science 2017, 8, pp. 7521-7527. doi: 10.1039 / c7sc02622f
  • Production of the Bengamide Class of Marine Natural Products in Myxobacteria: Biosynthesis and Structure-Activity Relationships. Together with H. Hoffmann, J. Zhang et al. Applied Chemistry Int. Ed. Engl. 2015, 54, pp. 15560-15564. doi: 10.1002 / anie.201508277
  • In vitro reconstitution of α-pyrone ring formation in myxopyronin biosynthesis. H. Sucipto, JH Sahner et al. Chemical science 2015, 6, pp. 5076-5085. doi: 10.1039 / c5sc01013f
  • Targeting DnaN for tuberculosis therapy using novel griselimycins. Together with A. Kling, P. Lukat et al. Science 2015, 348, pp. 1106-1112. doi: 10.1126 / science.aaa4690
  • Modular construction of a functional artificial epothilone polyketide pathway. Together with C. Oßwald, G. Zipf et al. ACS Synthetic Biology 2014, 3, pp. 759-772. doi: 10.1021 / sb300080t
  • Synthetic biotechnology to study and engineer ribosomal bottromycin biosynthesis. Together with L. Huo, S. Rachid et al. Chemistry & Biology 2012, 19, pp. 1278-1287. doi: 10.1016 / j.chembiol.2012.08.013
  • Complete genome sequence of the myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum. Together with S. Schneiker, O. Perlova et al. Nature Biotechnology 2007, 25, pp. 1281-1289. doi: 10.1038 / nbt1354
  • Nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis: Point mutations and module skipping lead to chemical diversity. Together with P. Meiser, TM Binz et al. Applied Chemistry Int. Ed. Engl. 2006, 45, pp. 2296-2301. doi: 10.1002 / anie.200503737
  • Heterologous expression of complex myxobacterial natural product biosynthetic pathways in pseudomonads. Together with R. Müller. BioSpektrum 2005, 11, pp. 628-631. BioSpectrum
  • Heterologous expression of a myxobacterial natural products assembly line in pseudomonads via Red / ET recombineering. Together with F. Gross, Y. Zhang et al. Chemistry & Biology 2005, 12, pp. 349-356. doi: 10.1016 / j.chembiol.2004.12.012

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e biography and list of publications on one-science.de.
  2. ↑ team of Rolf Müller on uni-saarland.de.
  3. ↑ a b research report HIPS 2010/2011 on helmholtz-hzi.de.
  4. ^ Dissertation in the German National Library.
  5. ^ Former group members Labor Taifu Mahmud.
  6. ↑ a b press release on idw-online.de.
  7. ↑ Project description (s) on uni-saarland.de.
  8. ↑ a b Heterologe Expression Article on biospektrum.de.
  9. ↑ Impact of genomics review article on rsc.org.
  10. ↑ Project portrait on Biooekonomie.de.
  11. ↑ Press release on griselimycin on dzif.de.
  12. ↑ Publications using the author search on scopus.com.
  13. ↑ Teaching material antibiotics on vci.de.
personal data
SURNAME Wenzel, Silke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wenzel, Silke Christine; Wenzel, Silke C.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH March 3, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH kassel
DATE OF DEATH February 2019
Place of death Saarbrücken