Benjamin Springstein, PhD

POstdoctoral Fellow

Born and raised in Hamburg (Northern Germany), I did my Bachelor of Science in Molecular Life Sciences at the University of Hamburg, including an Erasmus exchange term at Umeå University (Sweden). Afterwards, I proceeded with my Master of Science in Molecular Medicine at the Georg-August-University Göttingen (Germany) and finally ended up at the University of Kiel (Germany) for my PhD (although it’s actually a doctor and not a PhD). In Kiel, I studied cell and trichome-determining cytoskeletal proteins of different cyanobacterial species under supervision of Prof. Tal Dagan. Now, in 2019, I joined the Hochschild lab to broaden my understanding of polymerizing proteins and to further elucidate the underlying reasons for the apparent wide-spread presence of prion-forming proteins in bacteria. I will combine several genetic reporter systems to identify and characterize novel prion proteins in bacteria and combine those with my interest in fluorescence and high-resolution microscopy to unravel the dynamic properties during the cell cycle. Besides work in the lab, I enjoy going out for food, watching different types of sports events and riding my bike.