Department of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics
Petra Schwille is Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, and Honorary Professor at the LMU Munich. She studied physics and philosophy in Stuttgart and Göttingen, and graduated 1993 with Diploma in Physics at the Georg August University, Göttingen. She obtained her Ph.D. in 1996 from the TU Braunschweig, with a thesis on Fluorescence (Cross-)Correlation Spectroscopy, performed at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen. After a postdoctoral stay at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, she returned to the MPI Göttingen as a research group leader. In 2002, she accepted a Chair of Biophysics at the newly established BIOTEC center of the U Dresden. Since 2012, she is heading the department Cellular and Molecular Biophysics at the MPI of Biochemistry.
Petra Schwille’s scientific interests range from single molecule biophysics to the synthetic biology of reconstituted systems. In the last years, her department has been engaged in several national and international research initiatives aiming at the bottom-up design of minimal living cells, eventually helping to elucidate fundamental questions about the origin of life.
Her work has been awarded with several prestigious prizes, among them the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation in 2010 and the Braunschweig Research Prize in 2011. She is member of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanties (BBAW), and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), as well as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society (2015) and the Biophysical Society (2017).
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy reveal the cytoplasmic origination of loaded nuclear RISC in vivo in human cells.
Nucleic acids research Nov, 2008 | Pubmed ID: 18842624
Importin 8 is a gene silencing factor that targets argonaute proteins to distinct mRNAs.
Cell Feb, 2009 | Pubmed ID: 19167051
Minimal systems to study membrane-cytoskeleton interactions.
Current opinion in biotechnology Oct, 2012 | Pubmed ID: 22503237
Towards a bottom-up reconstitution of bacterial cell division.
Trends in cell biology Dec, 2012 | Pubmed ID: 23067680
Reconstitution of pole-to-pole oscillations of min proteins in microengineered polydimethylsiloxane compartments.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) Jan, 2013 | Pubmed ID: 23184489
Myosin motors fragment and compact membrane-bound actin filaments.
eLife Jan, 2013 | Pubmed ID: 23326639
Photoconversion of bodipy-labeled lipid analogues.
Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology Apr, 2013 | Pubmed ID: 23512865
Lateral membrane diffusion modulated by a minimal actin cortex.
Biophysical journal Apr, 2013 | Pubmed ID: 23561523
The design of MACs (minimal actin cortices).
Cytoskeleton (Hoboken, N.J.) Nov, 2013 | Pubmed ID: 24039068
Propagation of MinCDE waves on free-standing membranes.
Environmental microbiology Dec, 2013 | Pubmed ID: 24118679
MinC, MinD, and MinE drive counter-oscillation of early-cell-division proteins prior to Escherichia coli septum formation.
mBio Dec, 2013 | Pubmed ID: 24327341
Bacterial cell division: a swirling ring to rule them all?
Current biology : CB Feb, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 24556438
MinCDE exploits the dynamic nature of FtsZ filaments for its spatial regulation.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Apr, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 24707052
Asymmetric supported lipid bilayer formation via methyl-β-cyclodextrin mediated lipid exchange: influence of asymmetry on lipid dynamics and phase behavior.
Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids Jul, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 24885372
ESCRT-III mediated cell division in Sulfolobus acidocaldarius - a reconstitution perspective.
Frontiers in microbiology , 2014 | Pubmed ID: 24926288
Surface topology assisted alignment of Min protein waves.
FEBS letters Aug, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 24937143
Fluorescence fluctuation microscopy: a diversified arsenal of methods to investigate molecular dynamics inside cells.
Current opinion in structural biology Oct, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 25126766
Reconstitution of self-organizing protein gradients as spatial cues in cell-free systems.
eLife Oct, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 25271375
Toward Spatially Regulated Division of Protocells: Insights into the E. coli Min System from in Vitro Studies.
Life (Basel, Switzerland) Dec, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 25513760
Cytoskeletal pinning controls phase separation in multicomponent lipid membranes.
Biophysical journal Mar, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 25762322
Amphipathic DNA origami nanoparticles to scaffold and deform lipid membrane vesicles.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) May, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 25882792
Adaptive lipid packing and bioactivity in membrane domains.
PloS one , 2015 | Pubmed ID: 25905447
FtsZ Polymers Tethered to the Membrane by ZipA Are Susceptible to Spatial Regulation by Min Waves.
Biophysical journal May, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 25954894
Jump-starting life? Fundamental aspects of synthetic biology.
The Journal of cell biology Aug, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 26323686
Introducing a fluorescence-based standard to quantify protein partitioning into membranes.
Biochimica et biophysica acta Nov, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 26342678
Diffusion coefficients and dissociation constants of enhanced green fluorescent protein binding to free standing membranes.
Data in brief Dec, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 26587560
Pattern formation on membranes and its role in bacterial cell division.
Current opinion in cell biology Feb, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 26915065
DNA Nanostructures on Membranes as Tools for Synthetic Biology.
Biophysical journal 04, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 27119630
Single Particle Plasmon Sensors as Label-Free Technique To Monitor MinDE Protein Wave Propagation on Membranes.
Nano letters Jun, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 27172130
Protein Patterns and Oscillations on Lipid Monolayers and in Microdroplets.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) Oct, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 27465495
Coordinated recruitment of Spir actin nucleators and myosin V motors to Rab11 vesicle membranes.
eLife 09, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 27623148
Optical Control of Lipid Rafts with Photoswitchable Ceramides.
Journal of the American Chemical Society 10, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 27626130
In vitro Reconstitution of a Membrane Switch Mechanism for the Polarity Protein LGL.
Journal of molecular biology 12, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 27720986
Transport efficiency of membrane-anchored kinesin-1 motors depends on motor density and diffusivity.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 11, 2016 | Pubmed ID: 27803325
Diffusion of Single-Pass Transmembrane Receptors: From the Plasma Membrane into Giant Liposomes.
The Journal of membrane biology Aug, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 27826635
Control of lipid domain organization by a biomimetic contractile actomyosin cortex.
eLife 05, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28463108
Reconstitution of Protein Dynamics Involved in Bacterial Cell Division.
Sub-cellular biochemistry , 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28500535
Large-scale modulation of reconstituted Min protein patterns and gradients by defined mutations in MinE's membrane targeting sequence.
PloS one , 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28622374
Revolving around constriction by ESCRT-III.
Nature cell biology Jun, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28659638
Cell-free protein synthesis in micro compartments: building a minimal cell from biobricks.
New biotechnology Oct, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28690157
Biology and the art of abstraction.
Biophysical reviews Aug, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28756511
High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy Reveals the Inner Workings of the MinDE Protein Oscillator.
Nano letters Jan, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29210266
Optical Control of a Biological Reaction-Diffusion System.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) Feb, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29266672
Membrane sculpting by curved DNA origami scaffolds.
Nature communications 02, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29476101
There and back again: from the origin of life to single molecules.
European biophysics journal : EBJ May, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29569181
FCS Analysis of Protein Mobility on Lipid Monolayers.
Biophysical journal May, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29605081
Reverse and forward engineering of protein pattern formation.
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences May, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29632258
Quantifying Reversible Surface Binding via Surface-Integrated Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy.
Nano letters May, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29658275
MinE conformational switching confers robustness on self-organized Min protein patterns.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America May, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29666276
Photophysical Behavior of mNeonGreen, an Evolutionarily Distant Green Fluorescent Protein.
Biophysical journal May, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29706225
MaxSynBio - Avenues towards creating cells from the bottom up.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) May, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29749673
Liposomes and polymersomes: a comparative review towards cell mimicking.
Chemical Society reviews Sep, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30177983
Control of Membrane Binding and Diffusion of Cholesteryl-Modified DNA Origami Nanostructures by DNA Spacers.
Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids 12, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30253101
The MinDE system is a generic spatial cue for membrane protein distribution in vitro.
Nature communications 09, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30258191
Beating Vesicles: Encapsulated Protein Oscillations Cause Dynamic Membrane Deformations.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) 12, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30270475
Light-Induced Printing of Protein Structures on Membranes in Vitro.
Nano letters 11, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30295028
Membrane association and remodeling by intraflagellar transport protein IFT172.
Nature communications 11, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30409972
In vitro reconstitution of the bacterial cytoskeleton: expected and unexpected new insights.
Microbial biotechnology 01, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 30411506
Plasmonic Nanosensors Reveal a Height Dependence of MinDE Protein Oscillations on Membrane Features.
Journal of the American Chemical Society 12, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30481454
Photo-Induced Depletion of Binding Sites in DNA-PAINT Microscopy.
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Nov, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30513691
Myosin-II activity generates a dynamic steady state with continuous actin turnover in a minimal actin cortex.
Journal of cell science 12, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 30538127
Single Particle Tracking and Super-Resolution Imaging of Membrane-Assisted Stop-and-Go Diffusion and Lattice Assembly of DNA Origami.
ACS nano 02, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 30588792
More from less - bottom-up reconstitution of cell biology.
Journal of cell science 02, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 30718262
Optical manipulation of sphingolipid biosynthesis using photoswitchable ceramides.
eLife 02, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 30720434
124-Color Super-resolution Imaging by Engineering DNA-PAINT Blinking Kinetics.
Nano letters 04, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 30864449
Flat-top TIRF illumination boosts DNA-PAINT imaging and quantification.
Nature communications 03, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 30894522
Temperature-sensitive protein expression in protocells.
Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) May, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31094370
Manfred Eigen (1927-2019).
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) Jul, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31124258
Synthetic cell division via membrane-transforming molecular assemblies.
BMC biology 05, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31126285
Design of Sealable Custom-Shaped Cell Mimicries Based on Self-Assembled Monolayers on CYTOP Polymer.
ACS applied materials & interfaces Jun, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31136146
Bottom-up synthetic biology: reconstitution in space and time.
Current opinion in biotechnology 12, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31176995
Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy to Examine Protein-Lipid Interactions in Membranes.
Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) , 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31218628
The E. coli MinCDE system in the regulation of protein patterns and gradients.
Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS Nov, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31317204
Reconstitution and Coupling of DNA Replication and Segregation in a Biomimetic System.
Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology 10, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31344304
Heated gas bubbles enrich, crystallize, dry, phosphorylate and encapsulate prebiotic molecules.
Nature chemistry 09, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31358919
Toward Absolute Molecular Numbers in DNA-PAINT.
Nano letters 11, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31535868
An order of magnitude faster DNA-PAINT imaging by optimized sequence design and buffer conditions.
Nature methods 11, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31591576
Design of biochemical pattern forming systems from minimal motifs.
eLife 11, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31767054
Shaping Giant Membrane Vesicles in 3D-Printed Protein Hydrogel Cages.
Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) 07, 2020 | Pubmed ID: 32105403
Local Self-Enhancement of MinD Membrane Binding in Min Protein Pattern Formation.
Journal of molecular biology 05, 2020 | Pubmed ID: 32199984
Reversible membrane deformations by straight DNA origami filaments.
Soft matter Jan, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 32406895
Symmetry Breaking and Emergence of Directional Flows in Minimal Actomyosin Cortices.
Cells 06, 2020 | Pubmed ID: 32527013
The speed of FtsZ treadmilling is tightly regulated by membrane binding.
Scientific reports 06, 2020 | Pubmed ID: 32591587
Cytoskeletal and Actin-Based Polymerization Motors and Their Role in Minimal Cell Design.
Advanced biosystems 06, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 32648711
Cell-Free Protein Synthesis and Its Perspectives for Assembling Cells from the Bottom-Up.
Advanced biosystems 06, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 32648712
Phosphoinositides regulate force-independent interactions between talin, vinculin, and actin.
eLife 07, 2020 | Pubmed ID: 32657269
FtsZ Reorganization Facilitates Deformation of Giant Vesicles in Microfluidic Traps*.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) 11, 2020 | Pubmed ID: 32735732
Fine-Tuning Protein Self-Organization by Orthogonal Chemo-Optogenetic Tools.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) 02, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 33155720
Non-Equilibrium Large-Scale Membrane Transformations Driven by MinDE Biochemical Reaction Cycles.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) 03, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 33285025
Probing Biomolecular Interactions by a Pattern-Forming Peptide-Conjugate Sensor.
Bioconjugate chemistry 01, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 33314917
Division in synthetic cells.
Emerging topics in life sciences Nov, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 33523162
Protein Reconstitution Inside Giant Unilamellar Vesicles.
Annual review of biophysics 05, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 33667121
De novo design of a reversible phosphorylation-dependent switch for membrane targeting.
Nature communications 03, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 33674566
Reconstitution of contractile actomyosin rings in vesicles.
Nature communications 04, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 33859190
Increasing MinD's Membrane Affinity Yields Standing Wave Oscillations and Functional Gradients on Flat Membranes.
ACS synthetic biology 05, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 33881306
FtsZ induces membrane deformations via torsional stress upon GTP hydrolysis.
Nature communications 06, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34083531
Membrane-coated 3D architectures for bottom-up synthetic biology.
Soft matter Jun, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34106121
Molecular-scale visualization of sarcomere contraction within native cardiomyocytes.
Nature communications 07, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34215727
Tracking single particles for hours via continuous DNA-mediated fluorophore exchange.
Nature communications 07, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34290254
Hydration Layer of Only a Few Molecules Controls Lipid Mobility in Biomimetic Membranes.
Journal of the American Chemical Society Sep, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34342967
Self-organized protein patterns: The MinCDE and ParABS systems.
Current opinion in cell biology Oct, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34399108
Actin crosslinker competition and sorting drive emergent GUV size-dependent actin network architecture.
Communications biology 09, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34584211
Mass-sensitive particle tracking to elucidate the membrane-associated MinDE reaction cycle.
Nature methods 10, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34608318
Hidden protein functions and what they may teach us.
Trends in cell biology Oct, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34654605
Design Features to Accelerate the Higher-Order Assembly of DNA Origami on Membranes.
The journal of physical chemistry. B 12, 2021 | Pubmed ID: 34818013
CTP-controlled liquid-liquid phase separation of ParB.
Journal of molecular biology 01, 2022 | Pubmed ID: 34902429
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
2John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University,
3Department of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry,
4Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
5Department of Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
6Cellular and Molecular Biology Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor