Lipka, Volker, Prof. Dr.

Professor of Plant Cell Biology

• Dr. rer.nat. at the Department for Plant Molecular Biology, Technical University Aachen, 1999
• Postdoctoral fellow at the SainsburyLaboratory, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, 1999-2000
• Postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, 2000-2004
• Leader of an independent research group at the Department for Plant Biochemistry, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, University of Tübingen, 2004-2007
• Leader of an independent research group at the Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, 2007-2009
• Professor at the University of Göttingen since 2009

Major Research Interests
Our department is interested in the molecular analysis of plant innate immunity.
Our research is focused on the
1) molecular dissection of mechanisms that control activation of basal defense in the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana (chitin receptor complex formation & processing; downstream signal transduction; cell death activation and containment) [e.g. Erwig et al., 2017; Petutschnig et al., 2014]
2) analysis of plant defense mechanisms that contribute to resistance against fungal pathogens (pathogen invasion control; pathogen-induced cell polarization; orchestrated organelle relocalization; subcellular compartmentalization; production, transport & discharge of toxic metabolites) [e.g. Fuchs et al., 2016]
3) identification of fungal effector molecules that interfere with the plant defense machinery and allow host plant colonization (effector-mediated reprogramming of host plant development; pathogen-induced drought stress tolerance) [e.g. Reusche et al. , 2012; Reusche et al., 2014].
We combine genetics, cell biology, molecular biology and biochemistry in our experimental strategies to gain novel insights into these complex mechanisms.

Homepage Department/Research Group
http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/33181.html

ORCID: 0000-0002-9759-5906