Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus

Last updated
Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus
Nationality German
Alma mater University of Münster
Scientific career
Institutions Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
University of Ulm
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Mainz
University of Münster
Thesis Investigation of protein structure and dynamics: x-ray and γ-ray scattering with spatially sensitive proportional counters (translated from German) (1987)
Website Nienhaus Group

Gerd Ulrich "Uli" Nienhaus (born 1959) is a German physicist who is a professor and director of the Institute of Applied Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). [1] At the KIT, he is also affiliated with the Institute of Nanotechnology, [2] Institute of Biological and Chemical Systems, [3] and Institute of Physical Chemistry, [4] and he is an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [5]

Contents

He is known for his research on the molecular machinery of life. Over the years, he has employed and advanced a wide range of biophysical techniques, including protein crystallography [6] with x-rays and γ-rays, various spectroscopic methods (Mössbauer, XAS, UV-VIS, infrared) and optical fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy (single-molecule studies, FRET, FLIM, super-resolution microscopy) to elucidate the structure, dynamics and function of biological molecules. He has also been engaged in the development and characterization of nanoscale luminescent markers for bioimaging (fluorescent proteins, gold nanoclusters, semiconductor quantum dots). This research has been documented in more than 500 publications. [7] [8]

Education and early career

Nienhaus studied Physics and Physical Chemistry at the University of Münster, where he received his Diploma in Physics in 1983. [9] In 1988, he earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry with a dissertation entitled (translated from German) "Investigation of protein structure and dynamics: x-ray and γ-ray scattering with spatially sensitive proportional counters". [9] For this research in Fritz Parak's laboratory, he developed large multi-wire proportional counters with spherical drift chambers, [10] which had high long-term stability to enable collection of x-ray and γ-ray crystal diffraction data over many weeks. [11]

After brief postdoctoral stints at the Universities of Münster and Mainz, working on Mössbauer absorption spectroscopy with extremely wide energy windows, [12] Nienhaus moved to the Physics Department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in early 1990 as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. There, he joined the laboratory of Hans Frauenfelder to pursue time-resolved UV-VIS and infrared studies of ligand binding and protein dynamics. [9]

Research and career

At the University of Illinois, Nienhaus was promoted to research assistant professor (1991), assistant professor of physics (1992) and biophysics (1993) and associate professor with tenure (1996). [13] In this period, his laboratory carried on with studies of ligand binding and protein dynamics, [14] mainly on heme proteins. Since 1997, he has been appointed as an adjunct professor. [5]

In 1996, he accepted an offer to become head and professor of the Department of Biophysics, University of Ulm. There, he continued his research on heme proteins, studying ligand migration within these proteins and its effects on the ligand binding function. [15] He further expanded his portfolio of biophysical methods to include fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and single molecule fluorescence microscopy. [16] In 1999, he took a sabbatical to study RNA dynamics with single molecule FRET in Steve Chu’s laboratory at Stanford University. [17] In Ulm, together with Jörg Wiedenmann, he began to characterize and further develop novel members of the green fluorescent protein family, including EosFP, [18] [19] IrisFP, [20] [21] eqFP611, [22] and mRuby. [23]

In 2009, Nienhaus joined the University of Karlsruhe (TH), which soon thereafter was incorporated into the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), as a professor and director of the Institute of Applied Physics. [1] There, he and his collaborators have established a strong research focus on the advancement of optical fluorescence microscopy methods for super-resolution imaging (stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy, [24] [25] single-molecule localization microscopy) and light-sheet microscopy, and their application to various biological problems. An important research area has been the study of the emission properties of nanoparticles as luminescence markers and their interactions with the biological environment. [26] In collaboration with Andres Jäschke's lab at the University of Heidelberg, single-molecule studies have been performed to study RNA dynamics, [27] and RNA aptamers for super-resolution imaging have been developed and characterized. [28]

Honors

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Förster resonance energy transfer</span> Photochemical energy transfer mechanism

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Two-photon excitation microscopy</span>

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Winfried Denk is a German physicist. He built the first two-photon microscope while he was a graduate student in Watt W. Webb's lab at Cornell University, in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single-particle tracking</span> AliAlamerr

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EosFP is a photoactivatable green to red fluorescent protein. Its green fluorescence (516 nm) switches to red (581 nm) upon UV irradiation of ~390 nm due to a photo-induced modification resulting from a break in the peptide backbone near the chromophore. Eos was first discovered as a tetrameric protein in the stony coral Lobophyllia hemprichii. Like other fluorescent proteins, Eos allows for applications such as the tracking of fusion proteins, multicolour labelling and tracking of cell movement. Several variants of Eos have been engineered for use in specific study systems including mEos2, mEos4 and CaMPARI.

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References

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  2. ↑ "INT - People - Staff Index (A-Z)". www.int.kit.edu. 2022-01-18. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  3. ↑ "KIT - IBCS-BIP - Research Groups". bip.ibcs.kit.edu. 2021-08-04. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  4. ↑ "KIT - Institute of Physical Chemistry - Groups -". www.ipc.kit.edu. 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  5. 1 2 "Physics Faculty". physics.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  6. ↑ "RCSB Protein Data Bank". www.rcsb.org. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  7. ↑ "Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus's Publons profile". publons.com. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  8. ↑ "Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus". scholar.google.de. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "G. U. Nienhaus". www.aph.kit.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  10. ↑ Nienhaus, G. U.; Drepper, F.; Parak, F.; Mössbauer, R. L.; Bade, D.; Hoppe, W. (1987-05-15). "A multiwire proportional counter with spherical drift chamber for protein crystallography with X-rays and gamma-rays". Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment. 256 (3): 581–586. Bibcode:1987NIMPA.256..581N. doi:10.1016/0168-9002(87)90305-6. ISSN   0168-9002.
  11. ↑ Nienhaus, G. U.; Heinzl, J.; Huenges, E.; Parak, F. (1989). "Protein crystal dynamics studied by time-resolved analysis of X-ray diffuse scattering". Nature. 338 (6217): 665–666. Bibcode:1989Natur.338..665N. doi:10.1038/338665a0. ISSN   1476-4687. S2CID   4315560.
  12. ↑ Nienhaus, G. U.; Plachinda, A. S.; Fischer, M.; Khromov, V. I.; Parak, F.; Suzdalev, I. P.; Goldanskii, V. I. (1990-07-01). "Temperature dependence of the dynamics of ultrafine particles in a polymeric network". Hyperfine Interactions. 56 (1): 1471–1476. Bibcode:1990HyInt..56.1471N. doi:10.1007/BF02405460. ISSN   1572-9540. S2CID   95002929.
  13. 1 2 3 "Prof. Dr. Gerd Ulrich Nienhaus". CRC1324. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  14. ↑ Hartmann, H.; Zinser, S.; Komninos, P.; Schneider, R. T.; Nienhaus, G. U.; Parak, F. (1996-07-09). "X-ray structure determination of a metastable state of carbonmonoxy myoglobin after photodissociation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 93 (14): 7013–7016. Bibcode:1996PNAS...93.7013H. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.14.7013 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   38926 . PMID   8692935.
  15. ↑ Ostermann, Andreas; Waschipky, Robert; Parak, Fritz G.; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich (2000). "Ligand binding and conformational motions in myoglobin". Nature. 404 (6774): 205–208. Bibcode:2000Natur.404..205O. doi:10.1038/35004622. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   10724176. S2CID   4321727.
  16. ↑ Hedde, Per Niklas; Fuchs, Jochen; Oswald, Franz; Wiedenmann, Jörg; Nienhaus, Gerd Ulrich (2009). "Online image analysis software for photoactivation localization microscopy". Nature Methods. 6 (10): 689–690. doi:10.1038/nmeth1009-689. ISSN   1548-7105. PMID   19789527. S2CID   205417918.
  17. ↑ Kim, Harold D.; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich; Ha, Taekjip; Orr, Jeffrey W.; Williamson, James R.; Chu, Steven (2002-04-02). "Mg2+-dependent conformational change of RNA studied by fluorescence correlation and FRET on immobilized single molecules". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (7): 4284–4289. Bibcode:2002PNAS...99.4284K. doi: 10.1073/pnas.032077799 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   123640 . PMID   11929999.
  18. ↑ Wiedenmann, Jörg; Ivanchenko, Sergey; Oswald, Franz; Schmitt, Florian; Röcker, Carlheinz; Salih, Anya; Spindler, Klaus-Dieter; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich (2004-11-09). "EosFP, a fluorescent marker protein with UV-inducible green-to-red fluorescence conversion". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101 (45): 15905–15910. Bibcode:2004PNAS..10115905W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0403668101 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   528746 . PMID   15505211.
  19. ↑ Nienhaus, Karin; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich; Wiedenmann, Jörg; Nar, Herbert (2005-06-28). "Structural basis for photo-induced protein cleavage and green-to-red conversion of fluorescent protein EosFP". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (26): 9156–9159. Bibcode:2005PNAS..102.9156N. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0501874102 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   1166600 . PMID   15964985.
  20. ↑ Adam, Virgile; Lelimousin, Mickaël; Boehme, Susan; Desfonds, Guillaume; Nienhaus, Karin; Field, Martin J.; Wiedenmann, Joerg; McSweeney, Sean; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich; Bourgeois, Dominique (2008-11-25). "Structural characterization of IrisFP, an optical highlighter undergoing multiple photo-induced transformations". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (47): 18343–18348. Bibcode:2008PNAS..10518343A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0805949105 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   2587625 . PMID   19017808.
  21. ↑ Fuchs, Jochen; Böhme, Susan; Oswald, Franz; Hedde, Per Niklas; Krause, Maike; Wiedenmann, Jörg; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich (2010). "A photoactivatable marker protein for pulse-chase imaging with superresolution". Nature Methods. 7 (8): 627–630. doi:10.1038/nmeth.1477. ISSN   1548-7105. PMID   20601949. S2CID   11742998.
  22. ↑ Wiedenmann, Jörg; Schenk, Andreas; Röcker, Carlheinz; Girod, Andreas; Spindler, Klaus-Dieter; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich (2002-09-03). "A far-red fluorescent protein with fast maturation and reduced oligomerization tendency from Entacmaea quadricolor (Anthozoa, Actinaria)". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (18): 11646–11651. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9911646W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.182157199 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   129323 . PMID   12185250.
  23. ↑ Kredel, Simone; Oswald, Franz; Nienhaus, Karin; Deuschle, Karen; Röcker, Carlheinz; Wolff, Michael; Heilker, Ralf; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich; Wiedenmann, Jörg (2009-02-05). "mRuby, a Bright Monomeric Red Fluorescent Protein for Labeling of Subcellular Structures". PLOS ONE. 4 (2): e4391. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.4391K. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0004391 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   2633614 . PMID   19194514.
  24. ↑ Gao, Peng; Prunsche, Benedikt; Zhou, Lu; Nienhaus, Karin; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich (2017). "Background suppression in fluorescence nanoscopy with stimulated emission double depletion". Nature Photonics. 11 (3): 163–169. Bibcode:2017NaPho..11..163G. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2016.279. ISSN   1749-4893. S2CID   126350065.
  25. ↑ Hedde, Per Niklas; Dörlich, René M.; Blomley, Rosmarie; Gradl, Dietmar; Oppong, Emmanuel; Cato, Andrew C. B.; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich (2013-06-27). "Stimulated emission depletion-based raster image correlation spectroscopy reveals biomolecular dynamics in live cells". Nature Communications. 4 (1): 2093. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.2093H. doi: 10.1038/ncomms3093 . ISSN   2041-1723. PMID   23803641.
  26. ↑ Röcker, Carlheinz; Pötzl, Matthias; Zhang, Feng; Parak, Wolfgang J.; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich (2009). "A quantitative fluorescence study of protein monolayer formation on colloidal nanoparticles". Nature Nanotechnology. 4 (9): 577–580. Bibcode:2009NatNa...4..577R. doi:10.1038/nnano.2009.195. ISSN   1748-3395. PMID   19734930.
  27. ↑ Manz, Christoph; Kobitski, Andrei Yu; Samanta, Ayan; Keller, Bettina G.; Jäschke, Andres; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich (2017). "Single-molecule FRET reveals the energy landscape of the full-length SAM-I riboswitch". Nature Chemical Biology. 13 (11): 1172–1178. doi:10.1038/nchembio.2476. ISSN   1552-4469. PMID   28920931.
  28. ↑ Sunbul, Murat; Lackner, Jens; Martin, Annabell; Englert, Daniel; Hacene, Benjamin; Grün, Franziska; Nienhaus, Karin; Nienhaus, G. Ulrich; Jäschke, Andres (2021). "Super-resolution RNA imaging using a rhodamine-binding aptamer with fast exchange kinetics". Nature Biotechnology. 39 (6): 686–690. doi:10.1038/s41587-020-00794-3. ISSN   1546-1696. PMID   33574610. S2CID   231901171.
  29. ↑ "APS Fellow Archive". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2022-01-24.
  30. ↑ "Fellow of the AAAS". October 15, 2003. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  31. ↑ "Biophysical Society Announces 2023 Society Fellows". The Biophysical Society. Retrieved 2022-09-05.
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