Research

Regine Hengge is distinguished for important and seminal contributions in the field of bacterial signal transduction and regulation, which she made initially at the Universität Konstanz, and since 1998, at the Freie Universität Berlin. Using the general stress response of Escherichia coli as a model system, she was among the first microbiologists worldwide to investigate the molecular regulatory mechanisms in non-growing, i. e. stationary phase bacteria. Under these conditions, bacteria develop multiple stress resistances and enter complex developmental programs, that can lead e. g. to biofilm formation. Her work includes transcriptional as well as post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms, and in recent years focussed on the role of selective regulated proteolysis and small signaling molecules in regulatory networks.