Tim Clausen

PhD in Chemistry, 1997, TU Munich; Postdoc at Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried

Tim Clausen is a Senior Scientist and Group Leader at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna. The Clausen Group employs an integrative Structural Biology approach to study complex proteases and chaperones that function as safeguards in the cell, preventing misfolded proteins from undergoing dangerous interactions. By addressing mechanistic details of the protein-quality-control machinery, the group aims to develop strategies against faulty proteins connected with neurodegenerative diseases, inclusion body myopathies, cancer and ageing. Moreover, the group studies differences in the protein folding and protein degradation pathways between bacterial pathogens and their hosts, findings that will guide the development of novel antibiotics. Current research focuses on the targeted protein degradation in bacteria and the respective degradation signal, which is connected with a special phosphorylation event, namely phospho-arginine (pArg) residues. Conceptually, the pArg-dependent degradation pathway, discovered by the Clausen Group, represents a simple bacterial version of the famous ubiquitin-proteasome system, however its precise spatial and temporal regulation is elusive. Thus, the group started to explore cellular mechanisms that ensure the sequestration of molecular machines promoting the pArg labelling and degradation of client proteins in Gram-positive bacteria. Tim Clausen has supervised a total of 20 PhD students (14 graduated, 6 in progress). Among other recognition, Tim Clausen has been awarded EMBO membership and Heinz Mayer-Leibnitz Prize of the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft”, while his work has been supported by an ERC Advanced grant.