Affiliation
LMU Medical Faculty (BMC) - Molecular Biology
Contact
Molecular Biology
Großhaderner Strasse 9
D-82152 Planegg-Martinsried
Phone:
+49 (89) 2180 - 75428
Email:
aimhof@med.uni-muenchen.de
Website:
http://www.molekularbiologie.abi.med.uni-muenchen.de/ueber_uns/imhof/index.html
Research Focus
Project description:
The pairing of homologous chromosomes is a fundamental aspect of chromosome mechanics across eukaryotic organisms. While this end-to-end alignment of homologous chromosomes is commonly observed during meiosis to facilitate recombination and ensure accurate segregation into gametes certain Dipteran insects, like Drosophila, also exhibit homologous chromosome pairing in their somatic cells. This phenomenon, known as somatic chromosome pairing, was first described by Stevens in 1908. Unlike in humans, where somatic pairing has been linked to cancer (Atkin and Jackson 1996; Koeman et al. 2008), somatic pairing in Drosophila is a natural and wild-type condition. We aim to leverage the unique features of Drosophila somatic pairing to gain broader insights into chromosome pairing mechanisms across the tree-of life by investigating chromosme pairing in vitro and analysing the genome and proteome of paired chromosomes.
Potential supervisors: Hua Jie and Beyza Bozdag
Must have skills:
- A general idea and ideally hands-on experience with mass spectrometry
- At least 3 months of hands-on experience in a molecular biology lab
- General knowledge of how to write and use R-scripts
Nice to have skills:
- experience with Drosophila and next-generation sequencing