Chemical Biology

Chemical Biology

Prof. Dr. Markus Kaiser

Contact

Prof. Dr. Markus Kaiser


Faculty of Biology
Center of Medical Biotechnology (ZMB)
University of Duisburg-Essen

Research Overview

The Kaiser group develops and uses chemical biology approaches to investigate diverse aspects of regulated proteolysis and to study the molecular mechanisms behind bioactive small molecule action. Our interests are however not limited to basic research; rather, we aim to capitalize on our scientific findings for drug discovery or other medicinal applications.

Research Projects
Selected Publications
  • Zhang, Ruirui; Liu, Jie; Gasper, Raphael; Unger, Anke; Kaschani, Farnusch; Kaiser, Markus; Janning, Petra; Waldmann, Herbert
    Covalent modification of a glutamic acid inspired by HaloTag technology
    In: Nature Communications, Vol. 17, 2026, Nr. 1, 1257
  • Klink, Nikolas; Urban, Sebastian; Seier, Johanna A.; Adhikari, Bikash; Schwalm, Martin P.; Müller, Juliane; Dorsch, Madeleine; Steinbach, Philine; Jung, Jennifer; Vogt, Markus; Kaschani, Farnusch; Koch, Johannes; Führer, Siska; Kaiser, Markus; Schulze, Nina; Knapp, Stefan; Wolf, Elmar; Paschen, Annette; Grüner, Barbara M.; Gersch, Malte
    Targeted degradation of USP7 in solid cancer cells reveals distinct effects of deubiquitinase degraders and inhibitors
    In: Nature Communications, Vol. 17, 2026, Nr. 1, 4331
  • Brenner, Joel Cyrille; Zirden, Linda; Almeida-Hernandez, Yasser; Kaschani, Farnusch; Kaiser, Markus; Sanchez-Garcia, Elsa; Poepsel, Simon; Hellerschmied-Jelinek, Doris
    Conformational plasticity of a BiP-GRP94 chaperone complex
    In: Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Vol. 32, 2025, Nr. 10, pp. 1947 – 1958
  • Katz, Liora S.; Visser, Emira J.; Plitzko, Kathrin F.; Pennings, Marloes A. M.; Cossar, Peter J.; Tse, Isabelle L.; Kaiser, Markus; Brunsveld, Luc; Ottmann, Christian; Scott, Donald K.
    Molecular glues of the regulatory ChREBP/14-3-3 complex protect beta cells from glucolipotoxicity
    In: Nature Communications, Vol. 16, 2025, Nr. 1, 2110
  • Führer, Siska; Gallant, Kai; Kaschani, Farnusch; Kaiser, Markus; Janning, Petra; Waldmann, Herbert; Gersch, Malte
    Small Molecule-Induced Alterations of Protein Polyubiquitination Revealed by Mass-Spectrometric Ubiquitome Analysis
    In: Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 64, 2025, Nr. 32, e202508916
  • Brenner, Joel Cyrille; Zirden, Linda; Almeida-Hernandez, Yasser; Kaschani, Farnusch; Kaiser, Markus; Sanchez-Garcia, Elsa; Poepsel, Simon; Hellerschmied-Jelinek, Doris
    Conformational plasticity of a BiP-GRP94 chaperone complex
    In: Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Vol. 32, 2025, Nr. 10, pp. 1947 – 1958
  • Sanguankiattichai, Nattapong; Chandrasekar, Balakumaran; Sheng, Yuewen; Hardenbrook, Nathan; Tabak, Werner W.A.; Drapal, Margit; Kaschani, Farnusch; Grünwald-Gruber, Clemens; Krahn, Daniel; Buscaill, Pierre; Yamamoto, Suzuka; Kato, Atsushi; Nash, Robert; Fleet, George; Strasser, Richard; Fraser, Paul D.; Kaiser, Markus; Zhang, Peijun; Preston, Gail M.; van der Hoorn, Renier A.L.
    Bacterial pathogen deploys the iminosugar glycosyrin to manipulate plant glycobiology
    In: Science, Vol. 388, 2025, Nr. 6744, pp. 297 – 303
  • Sewald, Leonard; Tabak, Werner W. A.; Fehr, Lorenz; Zolg, Samuel; Najdzion, Maja; Verhoef, Carlo J. A.; Podlesainski, David; Geiss-Friedlander, Ruth; Lammens, Alfred; Kaschani, Farnusch; Hellerschmied, Doris; Huber, Robert; Kaiser, Markus
    Sulphostin-inspired N-phosphonopiperidones as selective covalent DPP8 and DPP9 inhibitors
    In: Nature Communications, Vol. 16, 2025, Nr. 1, 3208
  • Katz, Liora S.; Visser, Emira J.; Plitzko, Kathrin F.; Pennings, Marloes A. M.; Cossar, Peter J.; Tse, Isabelle L.; Kaiser, Markus; Brunsveld, Luc; Ottmann, Christian; Scott, Donald K.
    Molecular glues of the regulatory ChREBP/14-3-3 complex protect beta cells from glucolipotoxicity
    In: Nature Communications, Vol. 16, 2025, Nr. 1, 2110
  • Buscaill, Pierre; Sanguankiattichai, Nattapong; Kaschani, Farnusch; Huang, Jie; Mooney, Brian C.; Li, Yuge; Lyu, Joy; Sueldo, Daniela; Kaiser, Markus; van der Hoorn, Renier A. L.
    Subtilase SBT5.2 inactivates flagellin immunogenicity in the plant apoplast
    In: Nature Communications, Vol. 15, 2024, Nr. 1, 10431
  • Sauer PV, Pavlenko E, Cookis T, Zirden LC, Renn J, Singhal A, Hunold P, Hoehne-Wiechmann MN, van Ray O, Kaschani F, Kaiser M, Hänsel-Hertsch R, Sanbonmatsu KY, Nogales E, Poepsel S.
    Activation of automethylated PRC2 by dimerization on chromatin
    In: Mol Cell. 2024 Oct 17;84(20):3885-3898.e8.
  • Chen, Changlong; Buscaill, Pierre; Sanguankiattichai, Nattapong; Huang, Jie; Kaschani, Farnusch; Kaiser, Markus; van der Hoorn, Renier A. L.
    Extracellular plant subtilases dampen cold-shock peptide elicitor levels
    In: Nature Plants, Vol. 10, 2024, Nr. 11, pp. 1749 – 1760
  • Präve, Leonard; Kuttenlochner, Wolfgang; Tabak, Werner W.A.; Langer, Chiara; Kaiser, Markus; Groll, Michael; Bode, Helge B.
    Bioengineering of syrbactin megasynthetases for immunoproteasome inhibitor production
    In: Chem, Vol. 10, 2024, Nr. 10, pp. 3212 – 3223
  • Huang, Jing; Jaekel, Andreas; van den Boom, Johannes; Podlesainski, David; Elnaggar, M.; Heuer-Jungemann, A.; Kaiser, Markus; Meyer, Hemmo; Saccà, Barbara
    A modular DNA origami nanocompartment for engineering a cell-free, protein unfolding and degradation pathway
    In: Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 19, 2024, Nr. 10, pp. 1521 – 1531
  • Podlesainski, David; Adeniyi, Emmanuel T.; Gröner, Yvonne; Schulz, Florian; Krisilia, Violetta; Rehberg, Nidja; Richter, Tim; Sehr, Daria; Xie, Huzhuyue; Simons, Viktor E.; Kiffe-Delf, Anna-Lene; Kaschani, Farnusch; Ioerger, Thomas R.; Kaiser, Markus; Kalscheuer, Rainer
    The anti-tubercular callyaerins target the Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific non-essential membrane protein Rv2113
    In: Cell Chemical Biology, Vol. 31, 2024, Nr. 10, pp. 1755 – 1771.e73
  • Ninck, Sabrina; Klaus, Thomas; Kochetkova, Tatiana V.; Esser, Sarah P.; Sewald, Leonard; Kaschani, Farnusch; Bräsen, Christopher; Probst, Alexander J.; Kublanov, Ilya V.; Siebers, Bettina; Kaiser, Markus
    Environmental activity-based protein profiling for function-driven enzyme discovery from natural communities
    In: Environmental Microbiomes, Vol. 19, 2024, Nr. 1, 36
  • Day, Matthew; Tetik, Bilal; Parlak, Milena; Almeida-Hernández, Yasser; Räschle, Markus; Kaschani, Farnusch; Siegert, Heike; Marko, Anika; Sanchez-Garcia, Elsa; Kaiser, Markus; Barker, Isabel A.; Pearl, Laurence H.; Oliver, Antony W.; Boos, Dominik
    TopBP1 utilises a bipartite GINS binding mode to support genome replication
    In: Nature Communications, Vol. 15, 2024, Nr. 1, 1797
  • Beaufort, Nathalie; Ingendahl, Linda; Merdanovic, Melisa; Schmidt, Andree; Podlesainski, David; Richter, Tim; Neumann, Thorben; Kuszner, Michael; Vetter, Ingrid R.; Stege, Patricia; Burston, Steven G.; Filipovic, Anto; Ruiz-Blanco, Yasser B.; Bravo Rodriguez, Kenny; Mieres-Perez, Joel; Beuck, Christine; Uebel, Stephan; Zobawa, Monika; Schillinger, Jasmin; Malik, Rainer; Todorov-Völgyi, Katalin; Rey, Juliana; Roberti, Annabell; Hagemeier, Birte; Wefers, Benedikt; Müller, Stephan A.; Wurst, Wolfgang; Sanchez-Garcia, Elsa; Zimmermann, Alexander; Hu, Xiao-Yu; Clausen, Tim; Huber, Robert; Lichtenthaler, Stefan F.; Schmuck, Carsten; Giese, Michael; Kaiser, Markus; Ehrmann, Michael; Dichgans, Martin
    Rational correction of pathogenic conformational defects in HTRA1
    In: Nature Communications, Vol. 15, 2024, Nr. 1, 5944

All publications

News