Katrin Heinze, Ph.D. Student

Details: Katrin Heinze, Post-doc

Email: katrin.heinze@mcgill.ca
Phone: (514) 398-1697
Location: McGill University
Physics Department
Rutherford Physics Building
Montreal - QC - H3A 2T8
Website: www.wiseman-group.mcgill.ca

Research: Quantifying interaction of CaMKII and calmodulin in hippocampal neurons by dual-color image correlation techniques
(Co-advisors: Paul Wiseman - Paul De Koninck)

Katrin Heinze focuses on quantifying protein dynamics with variable stoechiometry in live neurons. Cellular function, regulation, and signaling is mainly driven by protein-protein interactions. The availability and interactions of those signaling proteins are tightly regulated in time and space to produce specific and localized effects.

Katrin uses spectroscopic and imaging (correlation) techniques to study the reversible binding dynamics of the fluorescently labeled signaling molecules calmodulin (CaM) and calcium/CaM-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) in living neurons. The Ca²⁺-binding protein CaM is a key transducer of Ca²⁺ oscillations and CaMKII is its key target with ability to dramatically alter the affinity for CaM. Furthermore, CaMKII is involved in forms of synaptic plasticity that may underlay learning and memory. While the protein binding dynamics are known for in vitro experiments the behavior of their interactions in cells has been purely speculative. Katrin's goal is to extract biochemical parameters from the CaMKII/CaM system such as the dissociation constant and degree of binding in living neurons to understand a little more about the role of dendritic CaMKII and its regulatory mechanisms.

Katrin is a recipient of the Otto-Hahn-Medal 2002 (awarded by the Max-Planck-Society for outstanding scientific achievements of young scientists) for her PhD work on the Development of high-sensitive techniques to analyze biomolecular interactions in living cells.

PATENTS

Costantino S., Heinze K.G., Martínez O.E. & Wiseman P.W., “Method and apparatus for two-photon fluorescent micromachining” US Provisional 60/689,070

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Costantino, S., Heinze, K.G., Martinez, O.E., De Koninck, P & Wiseman, P.W. (2005) Two-photon fluorescent micro-lithography for live cell imaging. Microscopy Research and Technique. 68(5):272-276.

MEETINGS