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Institute of Organic Chemistry

Claudia Höbartner Succeeds Gerhard Bringmann

06/20/2017

After 30 very successful years of research on the chemistry of natural products, the Chair of Organic Chemistry I will tackle new scientific challenges: Functionalising nucleic acids for labelling, detection and visualization of biomolecules.

Prof. Dr. Claudia Höbartner
Prof. Dr. Claudia Höbartner does research on RNA and DNA (photo: private)

Starting on the 1st of July 2017, Claudia Höbartner will bring some change to the Institute of Organic Chemistry. Her research on functional nucleic acids requires many new techniques beyond preparative organic synthesis to be established at the Chair of Organic Chemistry I. Therefore, some of the laboratories will also be equipped for biochemical and biomolecular research techniques, including a lab for radioisotopic labelling with 32P.

In 2016, Höbartner published the first X-ray structure of a DNA enzyme (deoxyribozyme) catalysing the ligation of two RNA fragments in the top journal Nature. Until then nobody had achieved such a structure, although a lot of research has been done on catalytic DNA over the past 20 years, since these enzymes are useful molecular tools and interesting candidates for analytical and therapeutic applications. Also in 2016, she was awarded with an ERC Consolidator Grant.

Höbartner’s other research interests are: In-vitro selection of fluorogenic RNA / DNA aptamers and deoxyribozymes; RNA labelling with deoxyribozymes using DNA-catalysed ligation chemistry; Synthesis of paramagnetic nucleoside building blocks and nucleic acids for EPR and NMR spectroscopy; Development of fluorogenic bioorthogonal labelling reactions and catalytic nucleic acids to address the chemical biology of natural RNA modifications and their roles for RNA structure and functions. These topics will enable Höbartner to collaborate not only with colleagues at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy but also with groups at the adjacent Biocentre and at the new Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research.

Professor Höbartner has been teaching undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Göttingen since 2009, when she was a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. She will start teaching at the University of Würzburg in the winter semester 2017/18. Bachelor thesis, master thesis, PhD, and postdoc applications are welcome from now on, with possible starting dates in July or August.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Claudia Höbartner, Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Würzburg, claudia.hoebartner@uni-wuerzburg.de, phone +49 931 31 89693

By C. Stadler

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