Manfred Focke

Personal Data:

Year of Birth: 1960

Military service: 1978-1979

Education and Qualification:

 

1979-1985 study of biology at the University of Karlsruhe
1985-1990 Ph.D. thesis in the group of Prof. H.K. Lichtenthaler, University of Karlsruhe

 

 

Employment:

 

Botanical Institute, Plant Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of Karlsruhe
since 1992 Academic Council (“ Akademischer Rat”)
since 1998 Academic Senior Council (“Akademischer Oberrat)

 

 

 

Duties and responsibilities:

 

Supervision of Ph.D. students and “Diplomanden”,
organisation of practical courses,
administration matters,
radiation safety commissioner,
teaching of laboratory assistents (“Biologie-Laboranten-Auszubildene”),
contact person of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie, GBM) at the University of Karlsruhe

Memberships:

American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB)
Deutsche Botanische Gesellschaft (German Botanical Society)
Federation of the European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB)
Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie (German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für DNA-Reparaturforschung (DGDR)
 

Research Visit:

July-October 1997 and 1998 at Prof. J.B. Ohlrogge’s Lab, Michigan State University, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, East Lansing, USA

 

Areas of interest

Characterization of DNA-repair enzymes,
nanotechnology,
plant metabolism

 

Current projects

Expression of DNA-repair enzymes (helicases, nucleases, topoisomerases) from plant origin in heterologous hosts (bacteria, insect cells),
Description of the enzymatic properties of DNA-repair enzymes,
Description of the quaternary structure of DNA-repair enzymes (protein complexes),
Assembly of DNA-nanostructures

Recent publications

Geuting V., Kobbe D., Hartung F., Dürr J., Focke M. and Puchta H. (2009) Two distinct MUS81-EME1 complexes from Arabidopsis thaliana process Holliday junctions. Plant Physiol. 150: 1062-1071

Kobbe D., Blanck S., Demand K., Focke M. and Puchta H. (2008) AtRECQ2, a RecQ-helicase homologue from Arabidopsis thaliana, is able to disrupt different recombinogenic DNA-structures in vitro. Plant J. 55, 397-405

Focke, M., Gieringer, E., Schwan, S., Jänsch, L., Binder, S., Braun, H.-P., Fatty acid biosynthesis in mitochondria of grasses: malonyl-CoA is generated by a mitochondrial-localized acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase. Plant Physiol. 133, 875-884 (2003)

Bao, X., Focke, M., Pollard, M., Ohlrogge, J., Understanding in vivo carbon precursor supply for fatty acid synthesis in leaf tissue. Plant J. 22(1), 39-50 (2000)