Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Görlich, Dirk, Prof. Dr.

Professor, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences


  • 1989 Diploma (Biochemistry), Martin-Luther-Universität in Halle
  • 1990-93 Graduate studies (Laboratory of T.A. Rapoport, Berlin)
  • 1993 Dr. rer. nat. (Biochemistry) Humboldt-Universität Berlin
  • 1993 - 1995 Postdoc (Laboratory of R.A. Laskey, Cambridge, England)
  • 1996 - 2007 Research group leader at the ZMBH Heidelberg
  • 2001 - 2007 Professor for Molecular Biology (Universität Heidelberg)
  • 2007 - Director, Dept. Cellular Logistics, MPI for Biophysical Chemistry,Göttingen
  • 2018-2019 Managing Director of the Institute




Major Research Interests

• Nuclear pore complexes, their function and assembly
• Hydrogels, “smart” materials, phase separations
• Structural biology
• Importins and Exportins, cargo recognition
• Recombinant antibodies, protein engineering


Homepage Department/Research Group

hhttps://www.mpinat.mpg.de/de/goerlich


Selected Recent Publications


  • Frey S, Rees R, Schünemann J, Ng SC, Fünfgeld K, Huyton T, Görlich D (2018) Surface properties determining passage rates of proteins through nuclear pores. Cell 174, 202-217.e9
  • Aksu M, Pleiner T, Karaca S, Kappert C, Dehne HJ, Seibel K, Urlaub H, Bohnsack MT, Görlich D (2018) Xpo7 is a broad-spectrum exportin and a nuclear import receptor. J Cell Biol 217, 2329-2340
  • Pleiner T, Bates M, and Görlich D (2018) A toolbox of anti-mouse and anti-rabbit IgG secondary nanobodies. J Cell Biol 217, 1143-1154
  • Aksu M, Trakhanov S, and Görlich D (2016) Structure of the exportin Xpo4 in complex with RanGTP and the hypusine-containing translation factor eIF5A. Nat Commun 7: 11952
  • Schmidt HB, Görlich D (2015) Nup98 FG domains from diverse species spontaneously phase-separate into particles with nuclear pore-like permselectivity. eLife 4: e04251
  • Pleiner T, Bates M, Trakhanov S, Lee CT, Schliep J E, Chug H, Böhning M, Stark H, Urlaub H, Görlich D (2015) Nanobodies: site-specific labeling for super-resolution imaging, rapid epitope-mapping and native protein complex isolation. eLife 4: e11349
  • Chug H, Trakhanov S, Hülsmann BB, Pleiner T, Görlich D (2015) Crystal structure of the metazoan Nup62•Nup58•Nup54 nucleoporin complex. Science 350: 106-110
  • Kirli K, Karaca S, Dehne H J, Samwer M, Pan T, Lenz C, Urlaub H, Görlich D (2015) A deep proteomics perspective on CRM1-mediated nuclear export and nucleocytoplasmic partitioning. eLife 4:e11466
  • Samwer M, Dehne HJ, Spira F, Kollmar M, Gerlich DW, Urlaub H, Görlich D (2013) The nuclear F-actin interactome of Xenopus oocytes reveals an actin-bundling kinesin that is essential for meiotic cytokinesis. EMBO J 32: 1886-1902
  • Labokha AA, Gradmann S, Frey S, Hülsmann BB, Urlaub H, Baldus M, Görlich D (2013) Systematic analysis of barrier-forming FG hydrogels from Xenopus nuclear pore complexes. EMBO J 32: 204-218
  • Hülsmann BB, Labokha A, Görlich D (2012) The permeability of reconstituted nuclear pores provides direct evidence for the selective phase model. Cell 150: 738-751
  • Frey S, Görlich D (2007) A saturated FG-repeat hydrogel can reproduce the permeability properties of nuclear pore complexes. Cell 130: 512-523
  • Frey S, Richter RP, Görlich D (2006) FG-rich repeats of nuclear pore proteins form a three-dimensional meshwork with hydrogel-like properties. Science 314: 815-817