Latest news about and from the Dormann Lab
2025
Yongwon' defense; 27.10.2025
Time is flying! Yongwon successfully defended his PhD!
Congratulations Yongwon!
Antonia starts her Masters in the Dormann Lab; 20.10.2025
Antonia has joined the Dormann Lab in order to do her Master's Thesis with us. Together with Saskia she will explore the world of phase separation!
Francesca's paper is published in EMBO Journal; 17.10.2025
Francesca's paper is now available online at EMBO Journal!
This study demonstrates that Tau and TDP-43 directly interact in vitro to form co-condensates that mutually regulate their aggregation. Tau enhances TDP-43 aggregation, whereas TDP-43 suppresses Tau fibril formation, resulting in co-assembled oligomers with reduced Tau seeding capacity.
In line with this, brain extracts from Alzheimer’s patients containing Tau/TDP-43 co-aggregates exhibit low Tau seeding potency but elevated TDP-43 seeding activity.
These findings reveal a mechanistic interplay between Tau and TDP-43 that may shape their co-pathology and offer new insights into the molecular basis of neurodegenerative disease progression.
Read the full publication here: Direct interaction between TDP-43 and Tau promotes their co-condensation, while suppressing Tau fibril formation and seeding | The EMBO Journal
Congratulations Francesca!
Barbara starts in the Dormann Lab; 01.10.2025
Barbara is joining the Dormann Lab as a Postdoc! With her expertise in DNA damage response she will be a great addition to our team!
Welcome Barbara!
Teambuilding event: Alpaca hike; 30.09.2025
Dormann Lab at SPP2191's Sattelite Meeting and GBM Compact: Focus on Condensate Biology; 16.-19.09.2025
As a yearly team building event the Dormann Lab went on a hike with alpacas, llamas and donkeys! Except the weather being a bit too wet, it was a loveley experience to walk with those animals next to you.
Dorothee, Saskia, Emre, Liza, Sára, Fatmanur and Franziska took part in this year's SPP2191 Sattelite Meeting and the GBM conference taking place in Frankfurt.
Fatmanur and Liza had the opportunity to give amazing talks at the SPP2191 Sattelite Meeting about their projects!
Furthermore, Saskia won a poster price at the GBM conference! Congratulations Saskia!
Dormann Lab at 2nd biennial conference on TDP-43 function and dysfunction in disease; 08.-11.09.2025
Dorothee, Saskia, Emre, Liza, Federico, Francesca and Sebastian took part in this year's TDP-43 conference in Trieste, Italy.
Francesca gave a great talk about her recently published work and Saskia, Liza and Federico presented their work in posters.
It was a great time discussing the latest developments in the TDP-43 field and exchange with other experts and meet some of our collaborators!
Raphael's defense; 22.08.2025
Raphael successfully defended his Bachelor! After doing some great science together with Emre, he will now start in an international Master's program.
All the best to you, Raphael! It was a pleasure to have you in our lab!
Dorothee and Saskia attended the conference "Life at the Edge: The nuclear envelope in nucleocytoplasmic transport and genome organization" in Potsdam; 23.-27.07.2025
Dorothee and Saskia represented our lab at this years' conference "Life at the Edge: The nuclear envelope in nucleocytoplasmic transport and genome organization", which took place July 23-27 in Potsdam. Dorothee gave a talk on “Regulation of nuclear import and phase transitions of disease-linked RNA-binding proteins” and Saskia presented a poster on “Role of the NLS region for the phase separation behaviour of the neurodegeneration-linked RNA-binding protein TDP-43”.
Francesca's preprint is now on bioRxiv! 11.07.2025
Francesca's preprint "Direct binding of TDP-43 and Tau drives their co-condensation, but suppresses Tau fibril formation and seeding" is now available on bioRxiv!
Read the full preprint here: Direct binding of TDP-43 and Tau drives their co-condensation, but suppresses Tau fibril formation and seeding | bioRxiv
SPP2191 & SFB1551 joint retreat at Basecamp, Bonn; 16. - 18.06.2025
Liza took part in the SPP1291 &SFB1551 joint retreat at Basecamp in Bonn this year! Scientific discussions, talks and poster presentations in a very special surrounding at an indoor campsite.
As the vice spokesperson of SFB1551, Dorothee took part in organising this great meeting and made it an unforgettable experience.
Saskia in London, January – March 2025
Saskia spends several exciting weeks in London to learn iPSC cell culture and CRISPR in the lab of our collaborator Marc-David Ruepp (Kings College, London, UK). We thank the entire Ruepp lab, in particular Marc-David and his postdoc Niamh O’Brien for hosting and their great support!
Federico's Marie Curie Fellowship, 10.02.2025
Federico was awarded the prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship!
Congratulations Federico!
2024
Francesca's defense: 08.11.2024
Time has come! Francesca has finished her PhD journey with a successful defense! Congratulations, Francesca!
Joint Lab Retreat with Marc-David Ruepp's group: 06. - 09.10.2024
Together with Marc-David Ruepp and his group from UK DRI at King's College London, we had a great time in Vielsalm, Belgium. Besides a lot of scientific presentations and great discussions, we enjoyed the beauty of the small town and had a lot of fun in different activities!
Curious 2024 Future Insight Conference as part of the SFB1551: 10. + 11.07.2024
Dorothee had the honour to be selected as a speaker and held a great talk about our work.
Besides this, the SFB1551 offered a exciting workshop with a lot of fun activities.