GRK 653:  Pseudomonas: Pathogenicity and Biotechnology

• Subject Area: Basic Research in Biology and Medicine
• Term: from 2000 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273193

The two German and the two Danish partners of the European research training group offer a highly streamlined and coherent reserarch programme with a diverse methodological spectrum and a broad studyprogramme. All projects focus on Pseudomonas bacteria, e.g. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one aspect of which is that as opportunistic pathogens they govern the outcome of patients with cystic fibrosis and of patients in burn units and ICU's. This is based on their extremeflexibility with regard to adapting mechanisms of attack, escape and resistance. A quite different aspect is that Pseudomonas are ubiquitous environmental bacteria with an affinity for aquatic and soil habitats and a strong capacity to build up bacterial communities and communication structures. They are excellent tools fordegradation and detoxification of environmental pollutants. The interdisciplinary research projects taken from environmental and medical microbiology will be dealt with by up-to-date methodology taken from the fields of biochemistry, genomics, molecular and cellbiology.

• DFG Programme: International Research Training Groups
• International Connection: Denmark
• Applicant Institution: Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
• IRTG-Partner Institution: Technische Universität Dänemark ; Center for Biomedical Microbiology; Københavns Universitet
• Participating Institution: Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI)
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Burkhard Tümmler
• Participating Researchers: Dr. Wolf-Rainer Abraham; Dr. Ulrich Baumann; Professor Dr. Dirk Bumann; Professorin Dr. Petra Gastmeier; Professorin Dr. Susanne Häußler; Professor Dr. Dieter Jahn; Professor Dr. Dietmar H. Pieper; Privatdozent Dr. Max Schobert; Dr. Martin Schuster; Privatdozentin Dr. Frauke Stanke; Professor Dr. Kenneth N. Timmis; Professor Dr. Jürgen Wehland (†); Professor Dr. Tobias Welte (†); Dr. Lutz Wiehlmann
• IRTG-Partner: Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Soeren Molin
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. O. Ciofu; Professor Dr. Michael Givskov; Professor Dr. Niels Hoiby; Dr. Claus Moser; Professor Dr. Tim Tolker-Nielsen, Ph.D.; Dr. David W. Ussery