Chair of Plant Systems Biology

By combining molecular, genetic and cell biological approaches with functional genomics, proteomics and structural biology, we investigate fundamental processes in plant development.

The group of Prof. Dr. Claus Schwechheimer is interested in signal transduction processes using the example of the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Here we specifically investigate processes that are controlled by the plant hormone gibberellin and the function of auxin transport regulatory protein kinases.

The working group of PD Dr. Ulrich Z. Hammes uses cell biological and physiological methods to study amino acid and auxin transport in plants.

The working group of Dr. Philipp Denninger started at the chair in July 2019. Dr. Denninger is concerned with the question of how cells grow polarly. Cell biological, biochemical and microscopic methods are used to investigate how proteins attach to the plasma membrane in order to establish and maintain cell polarity.

We host the Hans Fischer Senior Fellow Prof. Dr. Bjørn Panyella Pedersen, a Danish structural biologist from Aarhus University. His work combines structural biology and biophysical methods and focuses on similarities and differences between molecular transport mechanisms in plants and other eukaryotes. He was supported by several scholarships, including: through a Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND grant at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, through an ERC Starting Grant and an ERC Consolidator Grant.

You can find more information about our work and our working groups on the next pages.

If you are interested in carrying out internships or bachelor's, master's or doctoral theses or postdoctoral projects at our chair, please contact:
Prof. Dr. Claus Schwechheimer
Chair of Plant Systems Biology
Technical University of Munich
School of Life Sciences
Emil-Ramann-Strasse 8
D-85354 Freising
Phone: +49 8161 71 2880
Email: claus.schwechheimer@tum.de
Consultation hours: Monday 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. or by appointment