Göttinger Graduiertenzentrum für Neurowissenschaften, Biophysik und Molekulare Biowissenschaften

Griesinger, Christian, Prof. Dr.

Professor, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen


  • Dr. phil. nat. University of Frankfurt (1986, Prof. Dr. H. Kessler)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow at Lab. for Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich (1986 - 1989, Prof. Dr. R. R. Ernst)
  • Full Professor for Organic Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt (1990 - 2000)
  • Director and Scientific member at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (since 1999)
  • Honorary professor for physical chemistry at University of Göttingen (since 2001)




Major Research Interests

In the department, we develop NMR spectroscopic methods and apply them to the investigation of water soluble and membrane proteins, nucleic acids and their complexes as well as drug/target complexes. We are specifically focussing on the dynamics of biomolecules. Structural biology projects are performed in the context of signal transduction, ion channels, enzymes, intrinsically disordered proteins that some times form phase separated state (liquid liquid phase separation) and drug/target complexes using NMR as well as X-ray crystallography to characterize structure and dynamics. A major project is the investigation of proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases that are studied in the context of the MBExC and involve NMR and other biophysical methods as well as chemical synthesis and are translated to animal experiments in collaboration. Methods developments are aimed at pushing the limits of sensitivity for NMR spectroscopic detection (e.g. DNP), developing the measurement of structurally and dynamically relevant parameters, establishing methods to describe structural ensembles for folded and intrinsically disordered proteins. We are specifically interested in the determination of oligomer and fibril structures formed from proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases that interact with therapeutically or diagnostically interesting small molecules.


Homepage Department/Research Group

https://www.mpinat.mpg.de/griesinger/



Selected Recent Publications


  • Sieme D, Engelke M, Rezaei-Ghaleh N, Becker S, Wienands J, Griesinger C (2023) „Autoinhibition in the Signal Transducer CIN85 Modulates B Cell Activation“J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 1, 399–409

  • David J. & Griesinger C (2023) Optimal control pulses for the 1.2-GHz (28.2-T) NMR spectrometers. Sci. Adv. 9, eadj1133

  • Antonschmidt L, Dervişoğlu R, Matthes D, Dienemann C, Leonov A, Sant V, Ryazanov S, Becker S, Giese A, Schröder GF, de Groot B, Griesinger C, Andreas LB (2022) The clinical drug candidate anle138b binds in a cavity of lipidic α-synuclein fibrils. Nat Commun 13, 5385

  • Wong LE, Bhatt A, Erdmann PS, Hou Z, Maier J, Pirkuliyeva S, Engelke M, Becker S, Plitzko J, Wienands J, Griesinger C (2020) Tripartite phase separation of two signal effectors with vesicles priming B cell responsiveness. Nat Commun 11, 848

  • Nath N, Fuentes-Monteverde JC, Pech-Puch D, Rodríguez J, Jiménez C, Noll M, Kreiter A, Reggelin M, Navarro-Vázquez A, Griesinger C (2020) Relative configuration of micrograms of natural compounds using proton residual chemical shift anisotropy. Nat Comm 11: 4372

  • Wong LE, Bhatt A, Erdmann PS, Hou Z, Maier J, Pirkuliyeva S, Engelke M, Becker S, Plitzko J, Wienands J, Griesinger C (2020) Tripartite phase separation of two signal effectors with vesicles priming B cell responsiveness. Nat Comm 11: 848

  • Reddy JG, Pratihar S, Ban D, Frischkorn S, Becker S, Griesinger C, Lee D (2018) Simultaneous determination of fast and slow dynamics in molecules using extreme CPMG relaxation dispersion experiments. J. Biomol. NMR 70: 1-9

  • Martinez Hernandez A, Urbanke H, Gillman AL, Lee J, Ryazanov S, Agbemenyah HY, Benito E, Jain G, Kaurani L, Grigorian G, Leonov A, Rezaei-Ghaleh N, Wilken P, Teran Arce F, Wagner J, Fuhrman M, Caruana M, Camilleri A, Vassallo N, Zweckstetter M, Benz R, Giese A, Schneider A, Korte M, Lal R, Griesinger C, Eichele G, Fischer A (2018) The diphenylpyrazole compound anle138b blocks A channels and rescues disease phenotypes in a mouse model for amyloid pathology, EMBO Mol Med 10: 32-47

  • Salvi, M, Schomburg B, Giller K, Graf S, Unden G, Becker S, Lange A, Griesinger C (2017) Sensory domain contraction in histidine kinase CitA triggers transmembrane signaling in the membrane-bound sensor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 114 3115-3120