Research and Teaching Interests
In the Kothe group, we are interested in understanding how functional RNAs are generated focusing on RNA modification, RNA folding and RNA processing. We investigate structure-function relationships of RNAs and proteins aiding in RNA biosynthesis with the aim to understand fundamental processes in life as well as molecular causes of diseases such as cancer and inherited syndromes. Our special focus lies on studying tRNA biosynthesis as well as ribosome biogenesis. To address our research questions, we apply a combination of techniques in biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, and genetics using bacterial, yeast and human cells.