Biochemical Journal Young Investigator Award winner

Natalia Tschowri

In October 2001 Natalia Tschowri started her studies in Biology at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. In 2005 she spent 4 months as a project student in the group of Professor Dr Janet M. Wood at the University of Guelph, Canada. During her time in Guelph she worked on the osmosensory transporter ProP in E.coli. For her diploma thesis she joined the lab of Professor Dr Regine Hengge at the Freie Universität Berlin and worked on the regulation and function of a gene cluster involved in c-di-GMP-dependent signal transduction in E.coli. She graduated with distinction and received the "Katharina-Heinroth-Award" for her diploma thesis. For her PhD studies (since April 2007) she remained in the group of Professor Dr Regine Hengge. The main aspect of her PhD project has been to characterize the molecular function of the degenerated EAL-Protein YcgF in E.coli. This work was published recently in Genes and Development. Currently, she is working on YcgF and in particular on YcgF-controlled genes.