Frauke Martina Mickler (née König)
German
Curriculum Vitae
Since 2009 | PhD student in the group of |
2008 | Master thesis in the group of |
Topic of Master Thesis: "Functional characterization of the AAA ATPase spastin" | |
2007 | Internship at the Centre for Molecular Medicines and Therapeutics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Research project: “Chromatin modifications in Huntington’s Disease” |
2006 | Bachelor thesis in the group of Prof Schätzl at the institute of virology, Technical University Munich: “prion infection of muscle and neuronal cells” |
2004 | Internship at Euroimmun AG, Lübeck, Germany |
2003 - 2008 | Study of Biochemistry at the Technical University, Munich |
Scholarships
Since 2010 | Scholarship of the IDK-NBT (Elite Network of Bavaria) |
Research Project
Gene therapy is a promising approach to treat or cure diseases on a molecular level by the specific insertion of genes into individual cells of the human body. This insertion can be achieved by viral or non-viral, synthetic gene vectors. In order to optimize the efficiency and safety of these gene vectors for future clinical application a detailed understanding of their uptake mechanism into the cell and their intracellular trafficking is essential.
In my PhD project I study the cellular internalization of non-viral gene vectors by live-cell imaging with highly sensitive fluorescence microscopy. With the help of this powerful technique the fate of single nanoparticles can be followed in real time, from the first contact with the cell surface, to the trafficking inside the cell and finally the delivery of the DNA to the cell nucleus. Thereby detailed information about the impact of the particle composition on the uptake kinetics as well as the main barriers for efficient gene delivery can be gained. In particular the effect of different tumor specific targeting ligands will be analyzed in my PhD project in order to improve the selective gene therapy of cancer cells in the human body without severe side effects. The experiments are done in collaboration with the groups of Prof Ernst Wagner and PD Dr. Manfrad Ogris (Pharmacy department, LMU) and the group of Prof Kazunori Kataoka (University of Tokyo, Japan).
Publications
F. M. Mickler, Y. Vachutinsky, M. Oba, K. Miyata, N. Nishiyama, K. Kataoka, C. Brauchle, N. Ruthardt:
"Effect of integrin targeting and PEG shielding on polyplex micelle internalization studied by live-cell imaging"
JOURNAL OF CONTROLLED RELEASE, 156 (3):364-373; 
10.1016/j.jconrel.2011.08.003 (2011)
(under my maiden name Frauke König:)
H. Dietz, T. Bornschlögl, R. Heym, F. König, and M. Rief:
"Programming protein self-assembly with coiled coils"New J Phys Vol 9, p424 (2007)
Frauke.Koenig
cup.uni-muenchen.de