Group leader J. Haas

Deputy group leader S. Bailer

The research group uses novel high throughput-based genomic and proteomic technologies in a Systems Biology-type approach to characterize the interaction between pathogens and their hosts and to identify key events in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. In previous work the group has focused on genome-scale yeast-two-hybrid (Y2H) screens to identify interactions between pathogen and host proteins for a variety of DNA (e.g. Herpes simplex virus type 1 [HSV-1], Varicella zoster virus [VZV], murine Cytomegalovirus [mCMV], Marek`s Disease Virus [MDV], Epstein Barr Virus [EBV] and Kaposi’s Sarcoma associated herpesvirus [KSHV]) and RNA (e.g. SARS, Influenza) viruses, as well as bacterial pathogenicity islands and virulence plasmids (e.g. Helicobacter, Yersinia). An extended collection of currently >1.000 pathogen cDNA/open reading frame (ORF) clones has been generated by recombinatorial cloning. Novel, previously unknown protein interactions representing processes crucial for replication and pathogenesis have been characterized in more detail using biochemical, structural and functional analyses. Ongoing large-scale Y2H screens are performed in a core facility commonly led together with Prof. Ania Muntau at the Children’s Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich. mehr