Prof. Victor Sourjik Signal transduction in bacteria

We are interested in quantitative understanding of the design and functioning of cellular networks that are involved in signaling and regulation. Although specific molecular mechanisms differ, any such system must be able to extract signals from a noisy environment, adapt to large changes in signal and background strengths, and integrate multiple cues. Most of our work is done on signaling in bacterial chemotaxis, but we also investigate networks of two-component sensors, chaperones and sugar transporters in Escherichia coli. We apply quantitative fluorescence microscopy, including FRET and FRAP, to determine spatio-temporal dynamics of the network, and use these data to develop predictive computer models. We expect the network features that can be derived from such analyses to be general and equally apply to more complex networks in eukaryotes.

Detailed information on the project can be found at
www.zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de/Sourjik/default.shtml