Dr. Thomas Gensch

Thomas Gensch is group leader at the Institute of Biological Information Processing 1 (IBI-1; Molecular and Cellular Physiology) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Helmholtz Society). He joined the institute in 2000. He is leading the fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy group supervising bachelor, master, diploma and PhD students (at present 1 PhD students, altogether about 30 students). He obtained his Diploma degree in Physics from the Humboldt-University Berlin (1992; Prof. Dr. Beate Röder) and his PhD degree in Biophysics from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf/Max-Planck-Institute of Radiation Chemistry Mülheim/Ruhr (summa cum laude; 1996; Prof. Silvia Braslavsky, Prof. Kurt Schaffner and Prof. Georg Büldt). He received the Casimir-Ziegler Award of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science and the Nordrhein-Westfälische Academy of Science (1997) and won a personal Marie-Curie Postdoc-Grant (1998-1999; Catholic University Leuven, Belgium).

The scientific career of Dr. Gensch started in time-resolved optical spectroscopy (NIR photoluminescence detection of singlet molecular oxygen, light-induced optoacoustic spectroscopy and visible fluorescence) and investigation of photophysics of organic dyes and prosthetic groups bearing chromoproteins like phytochromes, rhodopsins, LOV-domains and photosynthetic complexes. In his Postdoc stays at Leuven University (Prof. Frans De Schryver; Department of Chemistry) and Amsterdam University (Prof. Klaas Hellingwerf; Department of Chemistry) he worked successfully in newly emerging research fields like single molecule fluorescence microscopy and time-resolved protein structure determination (CD, x-ray crystallography). Since he joined Forschungszentrum Jülich he focused his research on development advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques among them fluorescence lifetime imaging, Förster-resonance energy transfer microscopy and single molecule localization microscopy (PALM, dSTORM) and their use to study cell biological and physiological topics in living cells and brain tissue. More than 15 years of investigation, development and application of genetically encoded fluorescent markers and sensors made him an expert in all aspects of fluorescent proteins. More recently, part of his scientific interest was redirected back to singlet molecular oxygen generation in solution and cells and phototoxicity in general especially in his work related to LOV-domain derived fluorescent proteins (FbFPs) and silver plasmonic particles.

[1] D.U. Naether, J.R. Gilchrist, T. Gensch, and B. Roeder. Temporal and spectral separation of singlet oxygen luminescence from near infrared emitting photosensitizers. Photochem. Photobiol. 57:1056-1059 (1993)

[2] T. Gensch, and S.E. Braslavsky. Volume changes related to triplet formation of a water-soluble porphyrin. A light-induced optoacoustic spectroscopy (LIOAS) study. J. Phys. Chem. B, 101:101-108 (1997)

[3] T. Gensch, C. Viappiani, and S.E. Braslavsky. Structural volume changes upon photoexcitation of porphyrins. Role of the nitrogen-water interactions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 121:10573-10582 (1999)

[4] T. Gensch, J. Hofkens, A. Hermann, K. Tsuda, W. Verheijen, T. Vosch, T. Christ, T. Basché, K. Müllen, and F.C. De Schryver. Fluorescence detection from single dendrimers with multiple chromophores. Angew. Chem. Int. 38:3752-3756 (1999)

[5] J. J. van Thor, T. Gensch, K. J. Hellingwerf, and L. Johnson. Phototransformation of the wild-type A. Victoria Green Fluorescent Protein with UV- and Visible light leads to decarboxylation of Glutamate-222. Nat. Struct. Biol. 2002 9:37-41 (2002).

[6] H. Kaneko, I. Putzier, S. Frings, U. B. Kaupp, and T. Gensch. Chloride accumulation in mammalian olfactory sensory neurons. J. Neurosci. 24:7931-7938 (2004)

[7] A. Geiger, L. Russo, T. Gensch, T. Thestrup, S. Becker, K.-P. Hopfner, C. Griesinger, G. Witte, and O. Griesbeck. Correlating Calcium Binding, Förster Resonanxce Energy Transfer, and Conformational Change in the Biosensor TN-XXL. Biophys. J. 2012, 102:2401 – 2410.

[8] M. Wingen, J. Potzkei, S. Endres, G. Casini, C. Rupprecht, C. Fahlke, U. Krauss, K.-E. Jaeger, T. Drepper, and T. Gensch. The photophysics of LOV-based fluorescent proteins – new tools for cell biology. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 13:875-883 (2014)

[9] G. Stölting, R. Campos de Oliveira, R.E. Guzman, E. Miranda-Laferte, R. Conrad, N. Jordan, S. Schmidt, J. Hendriks, T. Gensch, and P. Hidalgo. Direct Interaction of CaVb with Actin Up-regulates L-type Calcium Currents in HL-1 Cardiomyocytes. J. Biol. Chem. 2015, 290:4561-4572.

[10] Y. Tang, L Dai, X Zhang, J. Li, J. Hendriks, X. Fan, N. Gruteser, A. Meisenberg, A. Baumann, A. Katranidis, and T. Gensch. SNSMIL, a real-time single molecule identification and localization algorithm for super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Sci. Rep. 2015, 5:11073.

[11] V. Untiet, P. Kovermann, N.J. Gerkau, T. Gensch, C.R. Rose, and Fahlke C. Glutamate Transporter-Associated Anion Channels Adjust Intracellular Chloride Concentrations during Glial Maturation. Glia 2017, 65:388-400.

[12] J. Torra, A. Burgos-Caminal, S. Endres, M. Wingen, T. Drepper, T. Gensch, R. Ruiz-González and S. Nonell. Singlet oxygen photosensitisation by the fluorescent protein Pp2FbFP L30M, a novel derivative of Pseudomonas putida flavin-binding Pp2FbFP. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 14:280-287 (2015)

[13] I. Abdollahzadeh, M. Schwarten, T. Gensch, D. Willbold and O.H. Weiergräber. The Atg8 Family of Proteins—Modulating Shape and Functionality of Autophagic Membranes. Front. Genet. 8:109 (2017)

[14] I. Maslov, A. Bogorodskiy, A. Mishin, I. Okhrimenko, V. Gordeliy, S. Kalenov, G.Büldt, T. Gensch, and V. Borshchevskiy. MitoTracker fluorescent labelling of halophiles. Sci. Rep. 2018 8:2549.

[15] S. Endres, M. Wingen, J. Torra, R. Ruiz-González, T. Polen, G. Bosio, N. L. Bitzenhofer, F. Hilgers, T. Gensch, S. Nonell, K.-E. Jaeger, T. Drepper. An optogenetic toolbox of LOV-based photosensitizers for light-driven killing of bacteria. Sci. Rep. 2018, 8:15021.

[16] M.B. Rivas Aiello, D. Castrogiovanni, J. Parisi, J.C. Azcárate, F.S. García Einschlag, T. Gensch, G.N. Bosio, and D.O. Mártire. Photodynamic Therapy in HeLa Cells Incubated with Riboflavin and Pectin coated Silver Nanoparticles. Photochem. Photobiol. 94:1159-1166 (2018).

[17] S. Burgstaller, H. Bischof, T. Gensch, S. Stryeck, B. Gottschalk, J. Ramadani-Muja, E. Eroglu, R. Rost, S. Balfanz, A. Baumann, M. Waldeck-Weiermair, J.C. Hay, T. Madl, W.F. Graier, and R. Malli. pH-Lemon, a fluorescent protein-based pH reporter for acidic compartments. ACS Sensors 4:883-891 (2019).

[18] I. Abdollahzadeh, J. Hendriks, J.L. Sanwald, I.M. Simons, S. Hoffmann, O.H. Weiergräber, D. Willbold, and T. Gensch. Autophagy-related proteins GABARAP and LC3B label structures of similar size but different shape in super-resolution imaging. Molecules 24, 1833 (2019).

[19] J. Meyer, V. Untiet, C. Fahlke, T. Gensch, and C.R. Rose. Quantitative determination of cellular [Na+] by fluorescence lifetime imaging with CoroNaGreen. J. Gen. Physiol. 151, 1319–1331 (2019).

[20] J. Dobner, I.M. Simons, K. Rufinatscha, S. Hänsch, M. Schwarten, O.H. Weiergräber, I. Abdollahzadeh, T. Gensch, J.G. Bode, S. Hoffmann, and D. Willbold. Deficiency of GABARAP but not its Paralogs Causes Enhanced EGF‐induced EGFR Degradation. Cells, 9:1296 (2020)

[21] M.B. Rivas Aiello, J.C. Azcárate, E. Zelaya, P.D. Gara, G.N. Bosio, T. Gensch, and D.O. Mártire. Photothermal Therapy with Silver Nanoplates in HeLa cells studied by in situ Fluorescence Microscopy. Biomater. Sci. (2021) 9, 2608 – 2619 (2021)

[22] A. Bogorodskiy, I.S. Okhrimenko, I. Maslov, N. Maliar, D. Burkatovskiy, F. von Ameln, A. Schulga, P. Jakobs, J. Altschmied, J. Haendeler, A., Katranidis, I. Sorokin, A. Mishin, V. Gordeliy, G. Büldt, W. Voos, T., Gensch^*, and V. Borshchevskiy^*. Accessing mitochondrial protein import in living cells by protein Microinjection. frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology 9, 698658 (2021)

[23] N.L. Blitzenhofer, F. Hilges, G. Bosio, J. Torra, G. Casini, F. Beinlich, E. Knieps-Grünhagen, K.-E. Jaeger, V. Gordeliy, S. Nonell, U. Krauss^*, T. Gensch^*, T. Drepper*. Development and characterization of flavin-binding fluorescent proteins. Meth. Mol. Biol. (2022) in press

[24] C. Montali, S. Abbruzzetti, A, Franzen, G. Casini, S. Bruno, P. Delcanale, S. Burgstaller, J. Ramadani-Muja, R. Malli, T. Gensch^*, C. Viappiani^*. Nitric oxide sensing by a blue fluorescent protein. Antioxidants. (2022) in press