Dr. Julia Schimpf

PostDoc
(Mon-Tue)

Institute of Physical Chemistry
Albertstraße 21
79104 Freiburg

Phone: +49 761 203-96704
Room: 01.002 (1.OG Flachbau)

Social Media und Studierendenmarketing
(Wed-Fri)

Dekanat
Hebelstraße 27
79104 Freiburg

Phone: +49 761 203-95266
(usually 09:00-14:00)
Room 002 (EG)

Email:  julia.schimpf@physchem.uni-freiburg.de

About me & my research

Having studied chemistry and English to become a teacher, I became enthusiastic about the work in the field of smFRET (single molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer) during my “Zulassungsarbeit”. Being able to observe single molecules has fascinated me ever since and this enthusiasm made me want to learn even more.

Now, as a PhD student, I am not only part of the greatest team I could possibly imagine, but also of the SFB1381, that focuses on protein machineries. I am particularly interested in the heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90). Together with the cell division cycle protein 37 (Cdc37), its homodimers form a protein machinery that is responsible for chaperoning most cellular kinases. Single molecule FRET allows us to follow the assembly, disassembly and conformational changes of these components in real time in an in vitro system. Working on a 4-colour-smFRET-TIRF setup, I want to find out how the dynamics within the Hsp90-Cdc37 complexes achieve controlled chaperoning. At first, I will focus mainly on the question whether the organisation of the Hsp90:Cdc37:Kinase complex is sequential or random. Afterwards other questions can be addressed (e.g., in how far organisation can be controlled and how kinase function is affected by that).

Funded by the SFB 1381

(Shared) first author publications

• Vollmar L, Schimpf J, Hermann B, Hugel T. (2024). Cochaperones convey the energy of ATP hydrolysis for directional action of Hsp90. Nat. Commun.

• Mondol T, Silbermann LM, Schimpf J, Vollmar L, Hermann B, Tych KK, Hugel T. (2023) Aha1 regulates Hsp90's conformation and function in a stoichiometry-dependent way. Biophys J.

Other collaborative publications

• J. Nuno de Sousa Machado, Leonie Vollmar, Julia Schimpf , Paushali Chaudhury, Rashmi Kumariya, Chris van der Does, Thorsten Hugel, Sonja-Verena Albers (2021) Autophosphorylation of the KaiC-like protein ArlH inhibits oligomerisation and interaction with ArlI, the motor ATPase of the archaellum Mol. Microbiol.
• Götz M; Barth A; Bohr S; Börner R; Chen J; Cordes T; Erie D; Gebhardt C; Hadzic M; Hamilton G; Hatzakis N; Hugel T; Kisley L; Lamb D; de Lannoy C; Mahn C; Dunukara D; de Ridder D; Sanabria H; Schimpf J, Seidel C, Sigel R, Sletfjerding M, Thomsen J, Vollmar L, Wanninger S, Weninger K, Xu P, Schmid S (2022) A blind benchmark of analysis tools to infer kinetic rate constants from single-molecule FRET trajectories Nat. Commun.
• Vollmar, L., Bebon, R., Schimpf, J., Flietel, B., Celiksoy, S., Soennichsen, C., Hugel, T. (2024). Model-free inference of memory in conformational dynamics of a multi-domain protein. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical.

(Short) talks and prizes

• Flash Talk at the SFB1381 International Symposium "Dynamic Organization of Cellular Protein Machineries" 2021
• Poster Prize for Best Poster at the SFB1381 Young Researchers' Retreat 2022
• Short Talk at EBSA conference's satellite meeting "Fluorescence fluctuation and single molecule spectroscopy" 2023
• Poster Prize for Best Poster at the annual SGBM student retreat 2023