Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Wouters, Fred S., Prof. Dr.

Professor, Laboratory for Molecular and Cellular Systems


  • Dr. (Ph.D.) 1997, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • 1997 - 2000: Postdoctoral fellow, Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), London UK
  • 2000 - 2001: Postdoctoral fellow, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg
  • 2001: Appointed as group leader at the European Neuroscience Institute Göttingen
  • PD (habilitation) 2006, Physiology, University of Göttingen
  • since July 2007 Professor



Major Research Interests

Our research focusses on the working and regulating of cellular molecular machines in health and disease. Examples include tyrosine kinase receptor signalling, programmed non-apoptotic cell death signalling and the mechanisms involved in inhibitory synapse formation. Mechanistic insight is obtained by the use of advanced quantitative fluorescence microscopy techniques. These primarily include Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM), and Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) microscopy. Furthermore, we design targeted optical assays for specific biological functions and activities with a focus on multiplexed detection in order to discover and/or describe connections and causalities.
In close collaboration with the UMG technology platform for Clinical Optical Microscopy (CLINOMIC) of Dr. Bunt, we recently started the development of volumetric deep tissue imaging techniques for use with human pathological tissue. Recent advances include a fast and effective method for optical clearing of large volumes of formaldehyde fixed pathological tissue and the development of a light sheet fluorescence microscope for cm-sized samples with 3-dimensional cellular resolution. With the implementation of advanced imaging techniques in pathology, we aim to introduce new and improved optical tools for clinical diagnosis.


Homepage Department/Research Group

https://neuropathologie.umg.eu/forschung/arbeitsgruppen-labore/ag-woutersbunt/



Selected Recent Publications


  • Liman J, Ganesan S, Dohm CP, Krajewski S, Reed JC, Bähr M, Wouters FS & Kermer P (2005) Interaction of BAG1 and HSP70 mediates neuroprotectivity and increases chaperone activity. Mol. Cell. Biol. 25, 3715-3725.
  • Esposito A, Gerritsen HC & Wouters FS (2005) Fluorescence lifetime heterogeneity resolution in the frequency domain by Lifetime Moments Analysis ( LiMA ). Biophysical Journal 89, 4286-4299.
  • Ganesan S, Ameer-beg SM, Ng T, Vojnovic B & Wouters FS. A dark yellow fluorescent protein (YFP)-based Resonance Energy Accepting Chromoprotein (REACh) for efficient FRET with GFP. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (2006) 130 (11), 4089-4094.
  • Esposito A, Gerritsen, HC, Oggier T, Lustenberger F. & Wouters FS. Innovating lifetime microscopy: a compact and simple tool for the life sciences, screening and diagnostics. J. Biomed. Optics (2006) 11 (3), 34016.
  • Iliev AI, Ganesan S, Bunt G, Wouters FS (2006) Removal of small pattern-breaking stretches in microtubule-binding repeats produces instantaneous tau aggregation and toxicity. J. Biol. Chem 281: 37195-37204
  • Iliev A, Wouters FS (2007) Application of simple photobleaching microscopy techniques for the determination of the balance between anterograde and retrograde axonal transport. J. Neurosci. Methods 161:39-46
  • Iliev AI, Djannatian JR, Nau R, Mitchell TJ, Wouters FS (2007) Cholestrol-dependent actin remodeling via RhoA and Rac1 activation by the Streptococcus pneumoniae toxin pneumolysin. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104: 2897-2902
  • Esposito A, Dohm CP, Kermer P, Bahr M, Wouters FS (2007) alpha-Synuclein and its disease-related mutants interact differentially with the microtubule protein tau and associate with the actin cytoskeleton. Neurobiol. Dis 26: 521-531
  • Esposito A, Dohm CP, Bahr M, Wouters FS (2007) Unsupervised fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy for high content and high throughput screening Mol. Cell. Proteomics 6,:1446-1454
  • Hillebrand M, Verrier SE, Ohlenbusch A, Schafer A, Soling HD, Wouters FS, Gartner J (2007) Live cell FRET Microscopy: homo- and heterodimerization of two human peroxisomal ABC transporters, the adrenoleukodystrophy protein (ALDP, ABCD1) and PMP70 (ABCD3). J. Biol. Chem 282: 26997-27005
  • Pommereit D, Wouters FS. An NGF-induced Exo70-TC10 complex locally antagonises Cdc42-mediated activation of N-WASP to modulate neurite outgrowth. J. Cell Sci. 120: 2694-2705
  • Esposito A, Gerritsen HC, Wouters FS (2007) Optimizing frequency-domain fluorescence lifetime sensing for high-throughput applications: photon economy and acquisition speed. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 24: 3261-3273
  • Ganesan S, Rohde G, Eckermann K, Sroka K, Schaefer MKE, Dohm CP, Kermer P, Haase G, Wouters FS, Bähr M, Weishaupt JH. Mutant SOD detoxification mechanisms in intact single cells. Cell Death Diff. In press