Molecular Targets and Therapeutics Center

Our goal is to unravel novel biological pathways and molecular mechanisms that control physiological and disease-related cellular processes to identify novel targets and design innovative therapeutic concepts.

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Human cell death , 3D realistic illustration of Healthy Human Cell infected and dying Macro Illustration

Misdirected signaling processes are triggers and accelerators of most human diseases. Only a profound understanding of all biological details is the prerequisite for the development of innovative and highly effective therapeutic approaches to serious and cost-intensive diseases such as allergies, autoimmune diseases, and cancers.
One process that is particularly crucial for health and disease is cell death. If it is possible to specifically trigger cell death in certain diseased cells (e.g. cancer cells), this opens up the possibility of curing cancer and other diseases.

Genetic engineering and gene manipulation concept. Hand is replacing part of a DNA molecule.

Epigenetics investigates which factors determine the activity of individual genes - and thus the development of a cell and also its daughter cells. At the MTTC, the mechanisms underlying transgenerational inheritance due to metabolic or environ-mental influences (e.g. high-fat diet) are studied.
In the area of gene regulation, long non-coding RNAs and RNA-binding proteins are interesting new drug targets. To develop innovative therapeutic concepts, novel approaches combining integrative structural biology with chemical probing are applied to study long non-coding RNAs and large RNA structures as well as protein/RNA interactions in protein-RNA complexes.

White pills spilled on blue wooden background

The huge number of incurable diseases and increasingly frequent epi- and pandemic waves of infection require the constant development of totally new highly innovative therapies. This is made possible by the elucidation of molecular mechanisms of cellular metabolic pathways in health and disease. Advanced structural biology, systematic omics approaches and data integration guide target- and structure-based drug development. The portfolio of therapeutic developments ranges from small molecules to protein or RNA therapeutics, genetically modified cells and viruses, including immunomodulators, therapeutic antibodies, innovative vaccines and cell therapies.

MTTC Mission

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Our experts at Molecular Targets and Therapeutics Center

Prof. Dr. Michael Sattler

Head of the Molecular Targets and Therapeutics Centers, Director Structural Biology

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Protzer

Deputy Head of the Molecular Targets and Therapeutics Center, Director Virology

Dr. Marcus Conrad

Director Metabolism and Cell Death

Prof. Robert Schneider

Director Functional Epigenetics

Prof. Oliver Plettenburg

Director Medicinal Chemistry

Prof. Dr. Pascal Falter-Braun

Director Network Biology

Prof. Martin Göttlicher

Director of Molecular Toxicology and Pharmacology

Prof. Stephanie E. Combs

Director Radiation Medicine

Prof. Vigo Heissmeyer

Head of Molecular Immune Regulation

Prof. Horst Zitzelsberger

Head of Radiation Cytogenetics

Prof. Daniel Krappmann

Head of Signaling and Translation

Burkitt's lymphoma cell, is a cancer of the lymphatic system

New Research Findings, ICB, Molecular Targets and Therapeutics, August 29, 2023

A team of researchers from Helmholtz Munich in cooperation with scientists at the University Hospital Münster (UKM) has uncovered a new pathway that promotes the growth of aggressive blood cancer, so-called lymphomas. Survival of many lymphomas…

Molecular Targets and Therapeutics, August 23, 2023

The workshop of the Molecular Targets and Therapeutics centre on July 7th was a great success with over 200 external and internal participants.

Molecular Targets and Therapeutics, VIRO, August 21, 2023

An interview with Prof. Ulrike Protzer

Coverart-Drachensteigen lassen am Strand

Molecular Targets and Therapeutics, STB, August 21, 2023

Mutations in FUBP1 cause defective gene regulation in glioma cells

Pre-mRNA splicing is an essential step in the maturation of mRNA in which introns are removed and the remaining exons are linked to create a mature mRNA as template for proteins.…

Molecular Targets and Therapeutics, STB, August 17, 2023

An interview with Prof. Reinhard Zeidler

Aktin Filamente Cryo-ET (Cryo Elektron Tomographie)

Transfer, Molecular Targets and Therapeutics, Pioneer Campus, May 30, 2023

Enabling Breakthroughs in High-Resolution Structural Analysis of Therapeutic Targets and their Visualization in the Native Cellular Context

Featured Publication, Molecular Targets and Therapeutics, STB, May 10, 2023

Triose phosphates (TPs) are the primary products of photosynthetic CO₂ fixation in chloroplasts, which need to be exported into the cytosol across the chloroplast inner envelope (IE) and outer envelope (OE) membranes to sustain plant growth.

A team…

2023 Blood

Wimberger N, Ober F, Avar G, Grau M, Xu W, Lenz G, Menden MP, Krappmann D*

Oncogene-induced MALT1 protease activity drives post-transcriptional gene expression in malignant lymphomas

2023 Nature reviews drug discovery

Hadian K, Stockwell BR

The therapeutic potential of targeting regulated non-apoptotic cell death.

2023 Nature Cell Death Discovery

Schorpp K, Bessadok A, Rothenaigner I, Strasser S, Peng T*, Hadian K*

CellDeathPred: a deep learning framework for ferroptosis and apoptosis prediction based on cell painting

2023 Molecular Cell

Ebersberger S, Hipp C, Mulorz MM, Buchbender A, Hubrich D, Kang H-S, Martinez-Lumbreras S, Kristofori P, Sutandy FXR, Allcca LL, Schönfeld S, Bakisoglu C, Busch A, Hänel H, Tretow K, Welzel M, Di Liddo A, Möckel MM, Zarnack K, Ebersberger I, Legewie S, Luck K, Sattler M*, König J*

FUBP1 is a general splicing factor facilitating 3′ splice site recognition and splicing of long introns

2023 Nature

Nakamura T, Hipp C, Santos Dias Mourao A, Borggräfe J, Aldrovandi M, Henkelmann B, Wanninger J, Mishima E, Lytton E, Emler D, Proneth B, Sattler M, Conrad M*

Phase separation of FSP1 promotes ferroptosis

2023 Nature

Mishima E, Nakamura T, Zheng J, Zhang W, Mourao ASD, Sennhenn P, Conrad M*

DHODH inhibitors sensitize to ferroptosis by FSP1 inhibition

2023 Nature Metabolism

Mishima E*, Wahida A, Seibt T, Conrad M*

Diverse biological functions of vitamin K: from coagulation to ferroptosis

2023 Nucleic Acids Research

Keil P, Wulf A, Kachariya N, Reuscher S, Hühn K, Silbern I, Altmüller J, Keller M, Stehle R, Zarnack K, Sattler M*, Urlaub H*, Sträßer K*

Npl3 functions in mRNP assembly by recruitment of mRNP components to the transcription site and their transfer onto the mRNA

Molecular Targets and Therapeutics Center

Our Research Areas

Cell Death and Immunity

Epigenetics and RNA Regulation

Novel therapeutic concepts

Our Institutes

Structural Biology

Virology

Metabolism and Cell Death

Molecular Toxicology and Pharmacology

Medicinal Chemistry

Functional Epigenetics

Network Biology

Molecular Immune Regulation

Radiation Cytogenetics

Radiation Medicine

Signaling & Translation

Aggressive Blood Cancer: Contribution of Enzyme MALT1 Uncovered

Molecular Targets & Therapeutics Workshop

Everything you always wanted to know about vaccinations

Identification of a key factor for splicing long introns

How to found a biomedical start-up?

Helmholtz Munich Establishes State-of-the-Art Cryo-Electron Microscopy Technology

Structural basis of metabolite transport by the chloroplast outer envelope channel OEP21

Our Research Groups

Bartzsch Group

Bauer Group

Cabianca Group

Combs Group

Deng Group

Dobiasch Group

Doll Group

Ebert Group

Falter-Braun Group

Göttlicher Group

Groth Group

Hadian Group

Hagn Group

Hansen Group

Heissmeyer Group

Hess Group

Jürjens Group

Kieser Group

Krappmann Group

Mautner Group

Niessing Group

Noessner Group

Peeken Group

Plettenburg Group

Popowicz Group

Proneth Group

Protzer Group

Reif Group

Sattler Group

Schick Group

Schmid Group

Schmoller Group

Schneider

Scialdone Group

Selmansberger Group

Tetko Group

Unger Group

Vincendeau Group

Zeidler Group

Zischka Group

Zitzelsberger

Associated Research Groups

The Cryoskeleton Lab

The nanoProbe lab

Virion Assemly Lab

Our Technology Platforms

Protein Expression and Purification Facility

X-ray Crystallography Platform

Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy

Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Compound Screening Platform

Immune monitoring

Biosafety level 3 imaging and cell sorting

Systems analysis of viral infections

Virus diagnostics

Contact

Director of Operations