Prof. Dr. Frank Buchholz

Prof. Dr. Frank Buchholz has been engaged as full Professor for Medical Systems Biology and Head of Translational Research at the University Cancer Center (UCC) of the Technische Universität Dresden since 2010.

As PhD student at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, he performed seminal work to implement and improve site-specific recombinases for genome engineering. During his postdoctoral time at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), he showed for the first time that these enzymes can induce a predefined chromosomal translocation in vivo and he invented substrate-linked directed evolution to breed recombinases with novel specificities.

He perfectionated this approach as independent group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden (MPI-CBG) from 2002 until 2010 to develop Tre recombinase, an enzyme that can eradicate HIV from infected cells. This approach has now been developed into a designer-recombinase platform technology and is supported by a number of research grants.

Frank Buchholz is also widely known for his development of esiRNA technology and its implementation as an efficient and specific RNAi screening tool. Employing this tool, he and his group have discovered many new genes relevant for stem cell biology and human diseases. His group has recently extended functional profiling via RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 technology to primary cells, with the goal to apply this technology to personalized medicine.

Most recent publications

Contreras W, Groenendyk J, Gentzel M, Schönberg PY, Buchholz F, Michalak M, Schröder B, Mentrup T (2024). Selective regulation of aspartyl intramembrane protease activity by calnexin. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2024 Oct 26;81(1):441. doi: 10.1007/s00018-024-05478-8. PubMed

Tretbar US, Rurik JG, Rustad EH, Sürün D, Köhl U, Olweus J, Buchholz F, Ivics Z, Fricke S, Blache U (2024). Non-viral vectors for chimeric antigen receptor immunotherapy. Nat Rev Methods Primers 4, 74 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-024-00348-w. Nature reviews

Kronstein-Wiedemann R, Thiel J, Sürün D, Teichert M, Künzel SR, Zimmermann S, Wagenführ L, Buchholz F, Tonn T (2024). Characterization of immortalized bone marrow erythroid progenitor adult (imBMEP-A) – The first inducible immortalized red blood cell progenitor cell line derived from bone marrow CD71-positive cells. Cytotherapy. 2024 Jul 2:S1465-3249(24)00767-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jcyt.2024.06.009. Online ahead of print. PubMed

Hoersten J, Ruiz-Gómez G, Paszkowski-Rogacz M, Gilioli G, Guillem-Gloria PM, Lansing F, Pisabarro MT, Buchholz F (2024). Engineering spacer specificity of the Cre/loxP system. Nucleic Acids Research 2024 Jun 13. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkae481. Online ahead of print. PubMed

Beschorner N, Künzle P, Voges M, Hauber I, Indenbirken D, Nakel J, Virdi S, Bradtke P, Lory NC, Rothe M, Paszkowski-Rogacz M, Buchholz F, Grundhoff A, Schambach A, Thirion C, Mittrücker H-W, Schulze Zur Wiesch J, Hauber J, Chemnitz J (2024). Preclinical toxicity analyses of lentiviral vectors expressing the HIV-1 LTR-specific designer-recombinase Brec1. PLoS One. 2024 Mar 8;19(3):e0298542. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298542. eCollection 2024. PubMed

Döring M, Brux M, Paszkowski-Rogacz M, Guillem-Gloria PM, Buchholz F, Pisabarro MT, Theis M (2024). Nucleolar protein TAAP1/C22orf46confers pro-survival signaling in non-small cell lung cancer. Life Sci Alliance. 2024 Jan 16;7(4):e202302257. doi: 10.26508/lsa.202302257. PubMed

Pasch T, Bäumer N, Bäumer S, Buchholz F, Mootz HD (2024). Towards targeted Cas9 (CRISPR-Cas) delivery: Preparation of IgG antibody-Cas9 conjugates using a split intein. J Pept Sci. 2024 Mar 6. doi: 10.1002/psc.3592. Online ahead of print. PubMed

Mukhametzyanova L, Schmitt LT, Torres-Rivera J, Rojo-Romanos T, Lansing F, Paszkowski-Rogacz M, Hollak H, Brux M, Augsburg M, Schneider PM, Buchholz F (2024). Activation of recombinases at specific DNA loci by zinc-finger domain insertions. Nature Biotechnology. 2024 Jan 31. doi: 10.1038/s41587-023-02121-y. Nature Biotechnology

Schmitt LT, Schneider A, Posorski J, Lansing F, Jelicic M, Jain M, Sayed S, Buchholz F, Sürün D (2023). Quantification of evolved DNA-editing enzymes at scale with DEQSeq. Genome Biol. 2023 Nov 6;24(1):254. doi: 10.1186/s13059-023-03097-3. PubMed

Aich M, Ansari AH, Ding L, Iesmantavicius V, Paul D, Choudhary C, Maiti S, Buchholz F, Chakraborty D (2023). TOBF1 modulates mouse embryonic stem cell fate through regulating alternative splicing of pluripotency genes. Cell Rep. 2023 Oct 31;42(10):113177. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.113177. PubMed

Klotz DM, Schwarz FM, Dubrovska A, Schuster K, Theis M, Krüger A, Kutz O, Link T, Wimberger P, Drukewitz S, Buchholz F, Thomale J, Kuhlmann JD (2023). Establishment and Molecular Characterization of an In Vitro Model for PARPi-Resistant Ovarian Cancer. Cancers 2023, 15(15), 3774. doi: 10.3390/cancers15153774. PubMed

Jelicic M, Schmitt LT, Paszkowski-Rogacz M, Walder A, Schubert N, Hoersten J, Sürün D, Buchholz F (2023). Discovery and characterization of novel Cre-type tyrosine site-specific recombinases for advanced genome engineering. Nucleic Acids Res. 2023 May 9;gkad366. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkad366. Online ahead of print. PubMed

Donato E, Correia N, Andresen C, Karpova D, Würth R, Klein C, Sohn M, Przybylla A, Zeisberger P, Rothfelder K, Salih H, Bonig H, Stasik S, Röllig C, Dolnik A, Bullinger L, Buchholz F, Thiede C, Hübschmann D, Trumpp A (2023). Retained functional normal and preleukemic HSCs at diagnosis are associated with good prognosis in DNMT3AmutNPM1mut AMLs. Blood Adv. 2023 Mar 28; 7(6): 1011–1018. Published online 2022 Dec 5. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2022008497. PubMed

Okonechnikov K, Camgöz A, Chapman O, Wani S, Park DE, Hübner JM, Chakraborty A, Pagadala M, Bump R, Chandran S, Kraft K, Acuna-Hidalgo R, Reid D, Sikkink K, Mauermann M, Juarez EF, Jenseit A, Robinson JT, Pajtler KW, Milde T, Jäger N, Fiesel P, Morgan L, Sridhar S, Coufal NG, Levy M, Malicki D, Hobbs C, Kingsmore S, Nahas S, Snuderl M, Crawford J, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Davidson TB, Cotter J, Michaiel G, Fleischhack G, Mundlos S, Schmitt A, Carter H, Michealraj KA, Kumar SA, Taylor MD, Rich J, Buchholz F, Mesirov JP, Pfister SM, Ay F, Dixon JR, Kool M, Chavez L (2023). 3D genome mapping identifies subgroup-specific chromosome conformations and tumor-dependency genes in ependymoma. Nat Commun. 2023; 14: 2300. Published online 2023 Apr 21. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-38044-0. PubMed

Rojo-Romanos T, Karpinski J, Millen S, Beschorner N, Simon F, Paszkowski-Rogacz M, Lansing F, Schneider PM, Sonntag J, Hauber J, Thoma-Kress AK, Buchholz F (2023). Precise excision of HTLV-1 provirus with a designer-recombinase. Mol Ther. 2023 Mar 17:S1525-0016(23)00135-1. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2023.03.014. Online ahead of print. PubMed

Mircetic J, Camgöz A, Abohawya M, Ding L, Dietzel J, Tobar SG, Paszkowski-Rogacz M, Seidlitz T, Schmäche T, Mehnert MC, Sidorova O, Weitz J, Buchholz F, Stange DE (2023). CRISPR/Cas9 Screen in Gastric Cancer Patient-Derived Organoids Reveals KDM1A-NDRG1 Axis as a Targetable Vulnerability. Small Methods. 2023 Mar 12:e2201605. doi: 10.1002/smtd.202201605. Online ahead of print. PubMed

Schönberg P, Ding L, Buchholz F (2023). Genom-Editierung ohne die DNA-Sequenz zu verändern – geht das? BIOspektrum. 2023 Jan; 46-48. doi: 10.1007/s12268-023-1882-2. Springer link

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