FWF funding for International – Multilateral Initiatives awarded to Thomas Böttcher
Congratulations to Thomas Böttcher (Faculty of Chemistry | CeMESS) and his team at the University of Vienna on securing FWF funding under “International – Multilateral Initiatives,” in concert with the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the new interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre CRC 1756. This international collaboration unites 18 principal investigators across chemistry and biology, with project A02 led by Thomas Böttcher.
Cells continuously respond to chemical and physical stimuli originating from their environment or from within an organism. Although precise responses to such “triggers” are essential for cellular viability and function, many fundamental questions regarding their origin, perception, and molecular processing remain unresolved.
The new interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre CRC 1756, “Chemical and Biological Principles of Cellular Trigger Responses”, brings together 18 principal investigators from the fields of chemistry and biology to address these questions. CRC 1756 has been approved as an international collaboration by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The centre is primarily based at the University of Konstanz, with one project located at the University of Vienna in the research group of Thomas Böttcher who is affiliated with the Faculty of Chemistry and CeMESS.
CRC 1756 aims to elucidate how cells perceive changes in their environment, how they process different triggers to generate appropriate cellular responses, how these responses ultimately alter cell physiology, and how such processes can be influenced or even controlled at the molecular level using chemical tools.
CeMESS/Ludwig Schedl
Within CRC 1756, the FWF-funded project A02, led by Thomas Böttcher at the University of Vienna, focuses on the development of chemical tools for targeting bacterial effector proteins. Many bacterial pathogens use a microscopic syringe-like apparatus to inject specific proteins - known as effector proteins - directly into host cells. These effector proteins trigger infection-promoting processes that severely disrupt host cell functions, for example by interfering with the degradation and renewal of defective cellular components or by manipulating cellular signaling pathways.
The goal of project A02 is to develop specific and selective chemical tools that enable the labeling of effector proteins in living cells. These tools will make it possible to study the activity and mechanisms of action of bacterial effector proteins in detail and to gain deeper insight into their role in pathogen-induced infection processes. In the long term, this research may also contribute to the identification of natural inhibitors, paving the way for more targeted and effective treatments of bacterial infections in the future.