Prof. Dr. Johannes Herrmann
Building 13, Room 449
Phone: +49 (631) 205-2406
E-mail: hannes.herrmann[at]biologie.uni-kl.de
Profiles: Google Scholar
Office hours: Mon. - Fri. 08:00 - 18:00
Major Research Interest
The focus of our group is the biogenesis of mitochondrial proteins. A small number of these proteins is synthesized on mitochondrial ribosomes. Owing to their hydrophobic nature, mitochondrial translation products are inserted into the inner membrane in cotranslational process which relies on the tight membrane binding of mitochondrial ribosomes. Most mitochondrial proteins are synthesized as precursors in the cytosol. How these precursors reach the mitochondrial outer membrane, how they are prevented from folding and aggregation and how they are degraded if their import fails are current questions in the lab.
Curriculum Vitae
Academic background
- 2009-2012
Dean of the Biological Faculty
- since 2006
Professor of Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern. Head of the Departmentrn-Landau
- 1999-2006
Group leader (scientific assistant) in the Department of Physiological Chemistry at the LMU Munich
- 1996-1998
Postdoc in the laboratory of Randy Schekman at the University of California in Berkeley, USA
- 1992-1996
PhD student in the laboratory of Walter Neupert at the Department of Physiological Chemistry in Munich
- 1986-1992
Study of Biology at the Universities of Bayreuth and Tübingen
Functions in committees and awards
- since 2024
Spokesperson of the GBM study group Cellular Organelles (together with Konstanze Winklhofer)
Membership on Editorial Boards of BBA-General Topics, Biological Chemistry, Microbial Cell and (as reviewing editor) eLife
- since 2021
Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Member of the FEBS (Federation of European Biochemical Societies) Publishing Committee
- 2017-2019
President of the GBM (German Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
- 2016-2024
Member of the DFG Panel Biochemistry (Review Board 201), 2020-2024 as speaker
- 2011-2017
Spokesperson of the GBM study group Redox Biology
- 2011
FEBS National Lecture Award, Brussels
- 2010
Award for Excellent Teaching in Rhineland-Palatinate
- 2008
Personal Teaching Award, Rhineland-Palatinate
- 2006
Arnold Sommerfeld Award of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
Selected Publications
Krämer L, Dalheimer N, Räschle M, Storchova Z, Pielage J,, Boos F, Herrmann JM. 2023. MitoStores: chaperone-controlled protein granules store mitochondrial precursors in the cytosol. The EMBO Journal e112309.
Schlagowski AM, Knöringer K, Morlot S, Sánchez Vicente A, Flohr T, Krämer L, Boos F, Khalid N, Ahmed S, Schramm J, Murschall LM, Haberkant P, Stein F, Riemer J, Westermann B, Braun RJ, Winklhofer KF, Charvin G, Herrmann JM. 2021. Increased levels of mitochondrial import factor Mia40 prevents the aggregation of polyQ proteins in the cytosol. The EMBO Journal e107913.
Backes S, Bykov YS, Flohr T, Räschle M, Zhou J, Lenhard S, Krämer L, Mühlhaus T, Bibi C, Jann C, Smith JD, Steinmetz LM, Rapaport D, Storchova Z, Schuldiner M, Boos F, Herrmann JM. 2020. The chaperone-binding activity of the mitochondrial surface receptor Tom70 protects the cytosol against mitoprotein-induced stress. Cell Rep. 25, 108936. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.108936.
Saladi S, Boos F, Poglitsch M, Meyer H, Sommer F, Mühlhaus S, Schroda M, Schuldiner M, Madeo F, Herrmann JM. 2019. The NADH Dehydrogenase Nde1 Executes Cell Death after Integrating Signals from Metabolism and Proteostasis on the Mitochondrial Surface. Mol. Cell 77, 1-14.
Boos F, Krämer L, Groh C, Jung F, Haberkant P, Stein F, Wollweber F, Gackstatter A, Zöller E, van der Laan M, Savitski MM, Benes V, Herrmann JM. 2019. mitochondrial protein-induced stress triggers a global adaptive transcriptional program. Nat. cell Biol. 21, 442-451.
Hansen KG, Aviram N, Laborenz J, Bibi C, Meyer M, Spang A, Schuldiner M, Herrmann JM. 2018. An ER surface retrieval pathway safeguards the import of mitochondrial membrane proteins in yeast. Science. 361, 1118-1122.
Beckmann R, Herrmann JM. 2015. mitoribosome oddities. Science 348, 288-289
Pfeffer S, Woellhaf MW, Herrmann JM, Förster F. 2015. Organization of the mitochondrial translation machinery studied in situ by cryoelectron tomogrphy. Nature Commun. 6, 6019
Riemer J, Bulleid N,Herrmann JM. 2009. disulfide formation in the ER and mitochondria: two solutions to a common process. Science 324, 1284-1287
Neupert W, Herrmann JM 2007. translocation of proteins into mitochondria. Annu Rev Biochem 76, 723-749
Mesecke N, Terziyska N, Kozany C, Baumann F, Neupert W, Hell K, Herrmann JM. 2005. A disulfide relay system in the intermembrane space of mitochondria that mediates protein import. Cell 121, 1059-1069
