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Katharina Scherer
© Volker Lannert
Dr. Katharina Scherer

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Affiliations
  • Institut für Mikrobiologie und Biotechnologie
Research topics
  • high-resolution light microscopy
  • viral infection
  • virus-host interaction
Since March 2023, we are a new, independent research group at the Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, funded by the NRW Returning Scholars Programme. As microbial pathogens, viruses are one of the largest causes of infectious diseases. Our focus is to better understand viruses and their reproduction since the formation of new virus particles in the host cell is a highly complicated process and crucial for the infection. High-resolution light microscopy is our preferred tool to visualise and measure the dynamics and mechanisms of virus replication. In particular, we observe how enveloped viruses - such as herpes-, corona- and influenza virus - structurally modify their environment in infected cells and efficiently assemble and disseminate new virus particles. The goal is to apply our observations and developed methods to solve medically relevant problems, e.g. the optimization of virus-based vaccines.
Selected publications

Scherer KM*, Mascheroni L*, Carnell GW, Wunderlich LCS, Makarchuk S, Brockhoff M, Mela I, Fernandez-Villegas A, Barysevich M, Stewart H, Suau Sans M, George CL, Lamb JR, Kaminski-Schierle GS, Heeney JL, Kaminski CF (2022) SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein adheres to replication organelles before viral assembly at the Golgi/ERGIC and lysosome-mediated egress. Sci Adv 8(1), eabl4895.

Scherer KM, Manton JD, Soh TK, Mascheroni L, Connor V, Crump CM, Kaminski CF (2021) A fluorescent reporter system enables spatiotemporal analysis of host cell modification during herpes simplex virus-1 replication. J Biol Chem 296, 100236.

Mascheroni L*, Scherer KM*, Manton JD, Ward E, Dibben O, Kaminski CF (2020) Combining sample expansion and light sheet microscopy for the volumetric imaging of virus-infected cells with super-resolution. Biomed Opt Express 11(9):5032-5044.

Grein F*, Müller A*, Scherer KM*, Liu X, Ludwig KC, Klöckner A, Strach M, Sahl HG, Kubitscheck U, Schneider T. (2020) Ca2+-Daptomycin targets cell wall biosynthesis by forming a tripartite complex with undecaprenyl-coupled intermediates and membrane lipids. Nat Commun 11(1):1455.

Katharina Scherer
© Volker Lannert
Dr. Katharina Scherer

Website

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