Research

Medically relevant Gram-negative pathogens express virulence traits to defeat human cells and cause disease. We study the structure and function of pathogen-specific virulence factors and take a closer look at their atomic architecture and regulation throughout the infection process.

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Methylation of Salmonella Typhimurium flagella promotes bacterial adhesion and host cell invasion
Horstmann, J. A. ; Lunelli, M. ; Cazzola, H. ; Heidemann, J. ; Kühne, C. ; Steffen, P. ; Szefs, S. ; Rossi, C. ; Lokareddy, R. K. ; Wang, C. ; Lemaire, L. ; Hughes, K. T. ; Uetrecht, C. ; Schlüter, H. ; Grassl, G. A. ; Stradal, T. E. B. ; Rossez, Y. ; Kolbe, M. ; Erhardt, M.
Nature Communications 11(1), 2013 (2020) [10.1038/s41467-020-15738-3]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15738-3

Cryo-EM structure of the Shigella type III needle complex
Journal Article Lunelli, M. ; Kamprad, A. ; Bürger, J. ; Mielke, T. ; Spahn, C. M. T. ; Kolbe, M.
PLoS pathogens 16(2), e1008263 (2020) [10.1371/journal.ppat.1008263]
https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1008263

Integrative structural analysis of the type III secretion system needle complex from Shigella flexneri
Flacht, L. ; Lunelli, M. ; Kaszuba, K. ; Chen, Z. A. ; Reilly, F. J. O. ; Rappsilber, J. ; Kosinski, J. ; Kolbe, M.
Protein science 32(4), e4595 (2023) [10.1002/pro.4595]
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pro.4595