Anne Spang

Anne Spang ( born November 29, 1967 in Wadern ) is a German biochemist / cell biologist and teaches and conducts research at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland.

Life

Anne Spang studied Chemical Technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt and biochemistry at the University of Paris VI in France. She received her PhD in 1996 at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried. Afterwards, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. From 1999 to 2006 she was a research group leader at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen. Since 2005, Spang is Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the Biozentrum, University of Basel.

Work

Anne Spang explores the basics of intracellular transport. International reputation gained by Spang their discovery that there is a maturation process from the early to the late endosome. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans SAND -1 controls identified them as the central switch of maturation. In addition, they showed that ArfGAP proteins are important for the absorption of freight in transport vesicles and COPI components that play a role in mRNA transport and mRNA metabolism. Their findings are significant for the understanding of many diseases which are based on defects in the localization of proteins and mRNA in the cell, such as Alzheimer's disease, cystic fibrosis, lysosomal storage disorders and cancer.

Awards

• 2010: Binder Innovation Prize
• 2009: Elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization ( EMBO)
• 2005: Walther Flemming Medal of the German Society for Cell Biology
• 2002: EMBO Young Investigator

List of publications

• Kilchert, C. and A. Spang. ( 2011). Co -translational localization of mRNA to the distal pole ABP140 of yeast cells. EMBO J. 30: 3567-80
• Kilchert, C., J. Weidner, C. Prescianotto - Baschong, and A. Spang. (2010). Defects in the secretory pathway and high Ca2 induce multiple P-bodies. Mol Biol Cell. 21: 2624-38
• Poteryaev, D., S. Datta, K. Ackema, M. Zerial, and A. Spang. (2010). Identification of the switch in early-to -late endosome transition. Cell 141:497-508
• Poteryaev, D., H. Fares, B. Bowerman, and A. Spang. (2007) Caenorhabditis elegans SAND -1 is essential for RAB -7 function in endosomal traffic. EMBO J. 26: 301-312
• Dirt, C., J. Stevens and A. Spang. (2007) Functions of the novel RhoGAPs RGA -3 and RGA -4 in the germ line and in the early embryo of C. elegans. Development 134: 3495-3505
• Trautwein, M., C. Schindler, R. Gauss, J. Dengjel, E. Hartmann, and A. Spang. (2006) Arf1p, Chs5p, and the chaps are required to bud vesicles from the Golgi specialized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. EMBO J. 25: 943-954
• Poteryaev, D., J. M. Squirrell, J. G. White, and A. Spang. (2005). ER dynamics in the early C. elegans embryo require homotypic membrane fusion and the actin cytoskeleton. Mol Biol Cell. 16: 2139-53
• Trautwein, M., J. Dengjel, M. Schirle, and A. Spang. ( 2004). Arf1p Provides an unexpected link in between vesicular traffic and mRNA transport in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Biol Cell, 15:5021-5037
• Lewis, S. M., P.P. Poon, R. A. Singer, G. C. Johnston, and A. Spang. ( 2004). The Arf -GAP Glo3 is required for the generation of COPI vesicles. Mol Biol Cell, 15:4064-4072
• Kamena, F. and A. Spang. ( 2004). Tip20p Provides directionality to transport by inhibiting fusion of COPII vesicles back with the endoplasmic reticulum. Science, 304:286-289
• Pure, U., U. Andag, R. Duden, H.-D. Schmitt, and A. Spang. (2002). ARF -GAP mediated interaction in between the ER- Golgi v - SNAREs and the COPI coat. J Cell Biol, 157:395-404
• Spang, A., and R. Schekman. (1998) Reconstitution of retrograde transport from the Golgi to the ER in vitro. J Cell Biol, 143:589-599
• Spang, A., K. Matsuoka, S. Hamamoto, R. Schekman, and L. Orci. (1998). Coatomer Arf1p, and nucleotide are required to bud COPI - coated vesicles from large synthetic liposomes. PNAS, 95: 11199-11204.
• Spang, A., S. Geissler, K. Grein and E. Schiebel. (1996). The γ - tubulin -like Tub4p of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is associated with the spindle pole body substructures did organize microtubules and is required for mitotic spindle formation. J Cell Biol, 134: 429-441.
• Spang, A., I. Courtney, U. Fackler, M. Matzner, and E. Schiebel. (1993). The calcium -binding protein cell division cycle 31 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a component of the half bridge of the spindle pole body. J Cell Biol, 123: 405-416.