They are each supervised by one of the Principal Investigators of BioToP, however, close collaboration with other research groups/PIs within this doctoral program is foreseen. This will thus strengthen the multi-disciplinary character of this programme.

In addition, short term research stays abroad (approx. 6 months) in the laboratories of international collaboration partners are planned.

Below you can find a list of all PhD projects. Use the drop-down menu to select projects from the different research areas or individual Principal Investigators.

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List of all open PhD research projects

PROJECT	SUPERVISOR	PhD STUDENT
Structure and Function of Hexosaminidases	Iain Wilson	open
Microarrays of natural and remodelled glycans	Iain Wilson	open

List of ongoing PhD research projects sorted by department:

DEPARTMENT	SUPERVISOR	PhD STUDENT
Applied Genetics and Cell Biology
Isolation and functional characterization of Nicotiana benthamiana serine proteinases involved in the degradation of recombinant proteins	Lukas Mach	Alejandro Puchol Tarazona
Immunoglobulin E (IgE) and glycosylation	Herta Steinkellner	Laura Montero Morales
Development of a seed-based strategy for the design of a mucosal vaccine against S. pneumoniae	Eva Stöger	Marc Tschofen
Identification of Lewis a containing glycoproteins from Arabidopsis thaliana and characterization of their involvement in pathogen defence	Richard Strasser	Gernot Beihammer
Analysis of structure−function relationships of monomeric and dimeric human IgA1 and IgA2 with defined N− and O−glycosylation	Richard Strasser	Kathrin Göritzer

Department of Biotechnology
Understanding the source of variation in protein N-glycosylation patterns of recombinant proteins generated in CHO cells	Nicole Borth	Nina Bydlinski
Productivity optimisation of CHO cells by epigenome alterations	Nicole Borth	Peter Eisenhut
Quantitative metabolic flux analysis in CHO cells	Nicole Borth	Diana Szeliova
Change of the Global Methylation Pattern to Alter the Growth Phenotype of CHO-CellsBackground	Nicole Borth	Marcus Weinguny
Establishment of a hyper-secreting eukaryotic protein production system as alternative cell factory for biotherapeutics	Nicole Borth	Michael Coats
Cellular Mechanisms of Regulation	Brigitte Gasser	Sonakshi De
Characterization of transcriptional regulatory proteins	Brigitte Gasser	Diane Barbay
Rational systems design of protein-producing yeasts: eliminating metabolic limitations	Brigitte Gasser	David Pena
Generation and presentation of membrane protein targets using influenza virus−like particles	Reingard Grabherr	Lisa Nika
Extracellular vesicle trafficking in aging	Johannes Grillari	Madhu Bobbili
Specialized ribosomes: implications for protein synthesis, cell behaviour and health	Johannes Grillari	Fabian Nagelreiter
Extracellular vesicle trafficking in aging	Johannes Grillari	Vera Pils
Genomic and epigenomic analysis of a plant-based expression platform for recombinant glycoproteins	Heinz Himmelbauer	Matteo Schiavinato
Partitioning of virus-like particles and protein superstructures in charged hydrogels	Alois Jungbauaer	Patricia Aguilar
In silico guided humanization of antibodies	Renate Kunert	Linda Schwaigerlehner
Defined gp140 trimers as HIV vaccine	Renate Kunert	Philipp Mundsperger
Introduction of unnatural amino acids in recombinant proteins with the yeast Pichia pastoris	Diethard Mattanovich	Nora Tir
Characterization of microbial methanol metabolism	Diethard Mattanovich	Domen Zavec
Metabolic engineering of Pichia pastoris	Diethard Mattanovich	Thomas Gassler
Engineering of T-cell receptor for bispecificity	Florian Rüker	Flavio Sadio
Extracellular vesicles as tool for drug delivery	Florian Rüker	Stefan Vogt
Enzyme scaffolding and cellular compartments for metabolic engineering endeavours	Michael Sauer	Bernd Albrecht
Understanding molecular transport processes for improved metabolic engineering approaches	Michael Sauer	Dominik Jeschek
Protein-liposome conjugates as novel HIV vaccine candidates	Karola Vorauer-Uhl	Ehsan Suleiman

Department of Chemistry
Enzymatic isotope−labeling of O-glycans for improved tumor biomarker analysis	Friedrich Altmann	Johannes Fuehrer
Biochemistry of actinobacterial coproheme decarboxylase (ChdC) from Corynebacterium diphteriae	Christian Obinger	Hanna Michlits
Structural and mechanistic studies on chlorite dismutase (Cld) from Cyanothece sp. PCC7425	Christian Obinger	Daniel Schmidt
Divergent evolution of the CDE superfamily − analysis of the structural and functional relationship between chlorite dismutases and dye-decolorizing peroxidases	Christian Obinger	Vera Pfanzagl
Biochemistry of invertebrate peroxidasins	Christian Obinger	Benjamin Sevcnikar
Developing rcSso7d-based chimeric antigen receptors	Christian Obinger	Charlotte Brey
Developing rcSso7d-based inhibitory receptors for improving the specificity and safety of NKG2D-CAR-T cells	Christian Obinger	Benjamin Salzer
Characterisation of unusual glycosyltransferases from lower eukaryotes	Iain Wilson	Barbara Eckmair

Department of Food Science and Technology
Recreation of ancestral members of the GMC family of FAD-dependent oxidoreductases	Dietmar Haltrich	Leander Sützl
Structure⁄function relationships in the electron transfer reactions of cellobiose dehydrogenase	Dietmar Haltrich	Georg Schütz
Structural characterization of Z-disk complex	Dietmar Haltrich	Antonio Sponga
Mechanism and dynamics of extracellular cellulolytic protein interactions	Roland Ludwig	Christophe Laurent
Development of high-throughput-screening of flavin- and heme-dependent oxidoreductases using genetically encoded redox sensors	Clemens Peterbauer	Peter Herzog

Department of Material Sciences and Process Engineering
Modelling and simulations of glycosylated proteins	Chris Oostenbrink	Aysegül Turupcu
Changing the substrate specifity of lytic polysaccharide monooxygeanse	Chris Oostenbrink	Erik Breslmayr

Department of NanoBiotechnology
Structure−function analysis of a phylum-wide conserved glycosyltransferase central to a novel protein O−glycosylation pathway	Christina Schäffer	Matthias Braun
Molecular basis of pyruvylated cell wall polymer – SLH-protein interactions	Christina Schäffer	Fiona Hager

List of completed PhD research projects sorted by department:

DEPARTMENT	SUPERVISOR	PhD STUDENT
Applied Genetics and Cell Biology
Plant glyco-engineering towards synthesis of recombinant proteins with polysialylated N-glycans	Herta Steinkellner	Somanath Kallolimath
Antibody production in seed tissues: evaluating the subcellular deposition, N−glycan modification and functionality	Eva Stöger	Stanislav Melnik
MAPK and JAK/STAT Signaling in Immune Regulation by Dendritic Cells	Lukas Mach	Klara Soukup
Artificial storage organelles for the optimal production of biopharmaceuticals in plants and plant cells	Eva Stöger	Anna Hofbauer
Isolation and functional characterization of Nicotiana benthamiana papain-like cysteine proteinases	Lukas Mach	Melanie Niemer

Department of Biotechnology
Understanding and controlling the expression of recombinant oligomeric immunoglobulins	Renate Kunert	Julia Hennicke
Molecular engineering of baculoviral based protein expression in insect cells	Reingard Grabherr	Krisztina Koczka
Genomic rearrangements in CHO producer cell lines	Nicole Borth	Inmaculada Hernandez-Lopez
Engineering Pichia pastoris for antibody surface display	Diethard Mattanovich	Lina Heistinger
Engineering the interface of Fab fragments for the generation of bispecific antibodies	Johannes Grillari	Maximilian Bönisch
Generation and presentation of membrane protein targets using baculovirus surface display	Reingard Grabherr	Monika Wilde
Investigation and Enhancement of Growth Characteristics of Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells	Nicole Borth	Gerald Klanert
Cross−Species Comparison of Expression Systems	Reingard Grabherr	Andreas Maccani
Influenza virus−like particles as antigen carrier platform for conserved influenza viral epitopes	Reingard Grabherr	Miriam Klausberger
Directed evolution of CHO host and production cell lines	Johannes Grillari	Eva Harreither
MicroRNOMics of CHO host and production cell lines	Johannes Grillari	Vaibhav Jadhav
Influence of surface curvature on unfolding of proteins on nanoparticle	Alois Jungbauer	Peter Satzer
Regulation of the expression of recombinant pentameric IgMs	Renate Kunert	Veronika Chromikova
Powerful expression of recombinant proteins	Renate Kunert	Wolfgang Sommeregger
Influence of amino acid sequence on growth and secretion of recombinant CHO cell lines	Renate Kunert	Patrick Mayrhofer
Regulation of heterologous protein production in relation to cell growth	Diethard Mattanovich	Corinna Rebnegger
Interrelation of core metabolism with the production of heterologous proteins in yeast	Diethard Mattanovich	Justyna Nocon
Modelling of interactions in miRNA and gene expression and target validation	Christian Obinger	Smriti Shridhar

Department of Chemistry
Structural and functional characterisation of a novel bacterial peroxidase with homology to human heme peroxidases	Christian Obinger	Andrea Nicolussi
Structural and functional characterization of Fcab-antigen interaction	Christian Obinger	Elisabeth Lobner
Comparative structural and functional studies on chlorite dismutases and DyP-type peroxidases	Christian Obinger	Irene Schaffner
Receptor specificity of the H1 hemagglutinin of the H1N1 swine−origin influenza A virus (S-OIV)	Friedrich Altmann	Laura Neumann
Yeast Cell Wall Characterisation	Gunda Köllensperger	Evelyn Rampler
Quantitative Metabolomics by LC–MS	Gunda Köllensperger	Karin Ortmayr
Functional studies on catalase-peroxidases and design of mechanism-based inhibitors	Christian Obinger	Bernhard Gasselhuber
Human peroxidasins − new multidomain oxidoreductases in the vascular system	Christian Obinger	Monika Soudi
Biocatalysis of chlorite dismutation − functional and structural studies on new peculiar heme enzymes of high practical relevance for bioremediation	Christian Obinger	Stefan Hofbauer
New generations of monoclonal antibodies based on the Fc-fragment of IgG1 − loop engineering and library design of immunoglobulin domains	Christian Obinger	Christoph Hasenhindl
Engineering the interface of Fab fragments	Christian Obinger	Sylvia Dietrich
Expression cloning of immunomodulatory glycan−modifying enzymes in insect cells	Iain Wilson	Simone Kurz

Department of Food Science and Technology
Investigation of cellobiose dehydrogenase and lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase for application in industry	Dietmar Haltrich	Marita Preims
Directed Evolution of a Beta-Galactosidase into a Transgalactosidase	Dietmar Haltrich	Barbara Geiger
Probing the active site of pyranose dehydrogenase − covalent attachment of the FAD and vicinity of the isoalloxazine	Dietmar Haltrich	Michael Graf
Engineering of pyranose oxidoreductases for modified oxygen reactivity	Dietmar Haltrich	Iris Krondorfer Dagmar Brugger
Establishing platforms for the production of recalcitrant proteins for functional and structural studies	Dietmar Haltrich	Georg Mlynek
Engineering of a novel fungal esterase by means of directed evolution and site-directed mutagenesis	Dietmar Haltrich	Daniel Kracher
Evolution and engineering of pyranose dehydrogenase for biofuel cell applications	Dietmar Haltrich	Christoph Gonaus
Development of food-grade gene expression vectors in lactic acid bacteria	Dietmar Haltrich	Minh Nguyen

Department of Material Sciences and Process Engineering
Advanced molecular modeling tools to quantify protein-protein interactions	Chris Oostenbrink	Manuela Maurer
Efficient free energy and enhanced sampling calculations of protein-protein interactions	Chris Oostenbrink	Zuzana Jandova
Contribution of enthalpy and entropy in molecular association	Chris Oostenbrink	Balder Lai
Structure and dynamics of cellobiose dehydrogenase and cytochrome P450	Chris Oostenbrink	Gabor Nagy

Department of NanoBiotechnology
Oral health: Development of genetic tools for Selenomonas sputigena to unravel mechanisms of dental plaque colonization	Christina Schäffer	Susanne Bloch
Glycoprofiling of oral pathogens – identification of novel glycoproteins and impact of glycosylation on biofilm formation	Christina Schäffer	Cornelia Rath
S−layer mediated display of customized glycans enabled by glycosylation engineering	Christina Schäffer	Julia Anzengruber
Assembly and interaction mechanisms of S−layer glycoproteins for applications in nanobiotechnology	Paul Messner	Zoe Megson
Carbohydrate−active enzymes in S−layer protein glycosylation	Paul Messner	Valentin Friedrich
Biochemical and Molecular Analysis of the Cell Wall Glyco(prote)ome of Lactobacillus buchneri	Paul Messner	Eva Smolar
Glycoprofiling of the oral pathogen Tannerella forsythia for identifying novel strategies in pathogenicity	Christina Schäffer	Markus Tomek