Research team Dr. Sass
Dr. rer. nat. Peter Sass studied biology with focus on microbiology, molecular biology and genetics. He obtained his diploma (2005) and PhD degree (2009) in microbiology in the lab of Gabriele Bierbaum (Medical Microbiology) in Bonn. Abroad, he gained further expertise in molecular biology at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth (Molecular Biology) and in life-cell imaging techniques at Newcastle University (Bacterial Cell Biology). Peter Sass held postdoctoral positions in the labs of Hans-Georg Sahl in Bonn (Pharmaceutical Microbiology) and Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt in Düsseldorf (Pharmaceutical Biology) until he joined the department of Microbial Bioactive Compounds in Tübingen in 2014 as research associate, where he started his research group with a focus on targeting bacterial cell division with antimicrobial agents.
Research focus
Bacterial infections with multidrug-resistant pathogens pose an increasing threat to nosocomial and community settings. Most clinically used antibiotics target one of the classical metabolic pathways of DNA, RNA, protein or cell wall syntheses. Considering the emergence of pathogens with reduced susceptibility to current antibiotic therapies, there is a high demand to find new antibiotics with novel targets and mechanisms of action. In recent years, bacterial cell division has emerged as a promising new target pathway for antibiotic attack. Our team investigates the mechanism of bacterial cell division and explores new approaches to target cell division with antimicrobial compounds.
Research examples:
In vitro and whole cell test systems to search for cell division modulators
Research team
Name/Email | Phone (07071-29-) | Function |
Blanco-Cabra, Nuria (Dr.) | -74726 | Postdoc |
Matos de Opitz, Cruz | -74726 | PhD student |
Jens Mößner | -74726 | MSc student |
Pan, Stefan | -74721 | PhD student |
Sass, Peter (Dr.) | -74721 | Team leader |
Publications
Funding / Awards / Memberships
- DFG, TRR 261: "Cellular Mechanisms of Antibiotic Action and Production - Antibiotic cellMAP"
- German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), TTU Novel Antibiotics
- DFG, SFB 766: "The Bacterial Cell Envelope: Structure, Function, and Infection Interface"
- Fellowship of the ERASMUS programme by the European Union
- Junior scientist award of the Dr. Günther-and-Imme-Wille foundation of the Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf
- Member of the Association of General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM)
- Member of the American society for microbiology (ASM)