Research

Bernd Bukau is Director of the ZMBH since 2005 and Co-Director of the Alliance between the ZMBH and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). Dr. Bukau´s scientific topics are: Protein folding in the cell: Mechanisms of chaperones and proteases.

The ensemble of molecular chaperones constitutes the cellular system that assists folding and assembly of newly synthesized proteins, translocation of unfolded proteins across membranes, as well as refolding and degradation of misfolded and aggregated proteins. Chaperones furthermore control signal transduction pathways through association with kinases and transcription factors, thereby leading to their regulated inactivation or degradation. All these features render chaperones essential for growth and stress survival of cells and implicat them in evolutionary processes. The long term goal of Bukau´s research is to understand the intricate functional network of chaperones and proteases in the cytosol. As model systems he and his laboratory are using bacteria, yeast and mammalian cells, and to combine genetics and cell biology with biochemistry and biophysics as experimental approaches.