Young Researcher Spotlight
Spotlight on: Peter Hombach
I am in my last year of my undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Bielefeld in Germany and last September I came to the University of Glasgow on the Erasmus+ Programme to spend four months in the lab of Professor John Christie.
My research in Glasgow was focused on blue light receptors in plants. Light is not only crucial for photosynthesis to take place but it also dictates the plant’s morphology. The photoreceptors I was working on are involved in mechanisms that enhance photosynthetic efficiency like the accumulation of chloroplasts to the cell surface in low light conditions or chloroplast avoidance reactions in high light conditions. The receptors work as light induced kinases and so far, only a few substrates are known. When we look at the amount of mechanisms in which the receptors are involved though, the question is: shouldn’t there be more substrates? In the search for unknown substrates, I was involved in establishing a method that has already been shown to work for different kinases, both in mammalians and plants. This approach takes advantage of the way kinases work in transferring phosphate groups. If you modify the phosphate that gets transferred, you can distinguish substrates of the kinase you are interested in from other phosphorylated molecules. The method presents a specific and sensitive way to test known or supposed kinase-substrate interactions on the one hand and finding yet unknown substrates of a given kinase on the other hand.
I had a lot of fun working in Glasgow, especially as I was very welcome in the lab and had the opportunity to work independently most of my time. On top of learning new techniques, I gained experience on how to plan my experiments and how to present my data to other members of the lab.
My final project in Bielefeld starts in April and is going to involve the plant’s circadian clock. After finishing my degree at the end of this year, I would like to stay in science and plan on doing a master’s degree in Biochemistry or Biotechnology before carrying on to a PhD.
In my free time, I play the guitar and like travelling a lot. During my time in Scotland, I made trips to Loch Lomond, the western Highlands and the east coast of Scotland where I enjoyed walking or riding my bike in the stunning landscapes.
