Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Lénárt, Peter, Dr.

Research Group Leader and Head of Live-cell Imaging Facility at the MPI-NAT


  • 1995 - 2000 Diploma in Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2000 - 2005 PhD Student, Laboratory of Jan Ellenberg, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany
  • 2005 - 2008 Postdoctoral fellow, Laboratory of Jan-Michael Peters, Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria
  • 2008 - 2011 Staff Scientist, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany
  • 2011 - 2018 Group Leader, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany
  • since 2018 Research Group Leader and Head of Live-cell Imaging Facility, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany



Major Research Interests


  • Cytoskeletal dynamics during cell division.
  • how cytoskeletal systems adapted to divide the large oocyte in the specialized and highly asymmetric meiotic divisions.
  • novel functions of the actin cytoskeleton in chromosome transport and nuclear envelope breakdown.
  • other mechanisms of oocyte meiosis, critical for reproduction of animal species.



Homepage Department/Research Group
https://www.mpinat.mpg.de/de/lenart

Selected Recent Publications


  • Jentoft IMA, Bäuerlein FJB, Welp LM, Cooper BH, Petrovic A, So C, Penir SM, Politi AZ, Horokhovskyi Y, Takala I, Eckel H, Moltrecht R, Lenart P, Cavazza T, Liepe J, Brose N, Urlaub H, Fernández-Busnadiego R, Schuh M. (2023) Mammalian oocytes store proteins for the early embryo on cytoplasmic lattices. Cell. 186(24):5308-5327.e25.

  • Wesolowska N, Avilov I, Machado P, Geiss C, Kondo H, Mori M, Lenart P (2020) Actin assembly ruptures the nuclear envelope by prying the lamina away from nuclear pores and nuclear membranes in starfish oocytes. Elife 9: e49774

  • Burdyniuk M, Callegari A, Mori M, Nedelec F, Lenart P (2018) F-Actin nucleated on chromosomes coordinates their capture by microtubules in oocyte meiosis. The Journal of cell biology 217:2661-2674. doi:10.1083/jcb.201802080

  • Bun P, Dmitrieff S, Belmonte JM, Nedelec FJ, Lenart P (2018) A disassembly-driven mechanism explains F-actin-mediated chromosome transport in starfish oocytes. eLife 7. doi:10.7554/eLife.31469

  • Bischof J, Brand CA, Somogyi K, Majer I, Thome S, Mori M, Schwarz US, Lenart P (2017) A cdk1 gradient guides surface contraction waves in oocytes. Nature communications 8:849. doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00979-6

  • Borrego-Pinto J, Somogyi K, Karreman MA, Konig J, Muller-Reichert T, Bettencourt-Dias M, Gonczy P, Schwab Y, Lenart P (2016) Distinct mechanisms eliminate mother and daughter centrioles in meiosis of starfish oocytes. The Journal of cell biology 212:815-827. doi:10.1083/jcb.201510083

  • Lenart P, Bacher CP, Daigle N, Hand AR, Eils R, Terasaki M, Ellenberg J (2005) A contractile nuclear actin network drives chromosome congression in oocytes. Nature 436(7052), 812-8.