Prof. Dr. Frank Buchholz
Prof. Dr. Frank Buchholz has been engaged as full Professor for Medical Systems Biology and Head of Translational Research at the University Cancer Center (UCC) of the Technische Universität Dresden since 2010.
As PhD student at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, he performed seminal work to implement and improve site-specific recombinases for genome engineering. During his postdoctoral time at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), he showed for the first time that these enzymes can induce a predefined chromosomal translocation in vivo and he invented substrate-linked directed evolution to breed recombinases with novel specificities.
He perfectionated this approach as independent group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden (MPI-CBG) from 2002 until 2010 to develop Tre recombinase, an enzyme that can eradicate HIV from infected cells. This approach has now been developed into a designer-recombinase platform technology and is supported by a number of research grants.
Frank Buchholz is also widely known for his development of esiRNA technology and its implementation as an efficient and specific RNAi screening tool. Employing this tool, he and his group have discovered many new genes relevant for stem cell biology and human diseases. His group has recently extended functional profiling via RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 technology to primary cells, with the goal to apply this technology to personalized medicine.
Most recent publications
Wang P, Sen R, Buchholz F, Sayed S (2025). A base editing platform for the correction of cancer driver mutations unmasks conserved p53 transcription programs. Genome Biol 26, 217 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-025-03667-7. Genome Biol
Kufrin V, Seiler A, Brilloff S, Rothfuß H, Küchler S, Schäfer S, Rahimian E, Baumgarten J, Ding L, Buchholz F, Ball CR, Bornhäuser M, Glimm H, Bill M, Wurm AA (2025). The histone modifier KAT2A presents a selective target in a subset of well-differentiated microsatellite-stable colorectal cancers. Cell Death Differ. 2025 Mar 27. doi: 10.1038/s41418-025-01479-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40140561. PubMed
Schönberg PY, Muñoz-Ovalle Á, Paszkowski-Rogacz M, Crespo E, Sürün D, Feldmann A, Buchholz F (2025). A pooled CRISPR screen identifies the Tα2 enhancer element as a driver of TRA expression in a subset of mature human T lymphocytes. Front Immunol. 2025 Mar 14;16:1536003. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1536003. PMID: 40160815; PMCID: PMC11949936. PubMed
Schwarz FM, Klotz DM, Yang R, Brux M, Buchholz F, Harb H, Link T, Wimberger P, Theis M, Kuhlmann JD (2025). Methylstat sensitizes ovarian cancer cells to PARP-inhibition by targeting the histone demethylases JMJD1B/C. Cancer Gene Ther. 2025 Mar;32(3):286-296. doi: 10.1038/s41417-025-00874-z. Epub 2025 Feb 6. PMID: 39915607; PMCID: PMC11946898. PubMed
Popova S, Bhattarai P, Yilmaz E, Lascu D, Kuo JH, Erdem G, Coban B, Michling J, Cosacak MI, Tayran H, Kurth T, Schambony A, Buchholz F, Gentzel M, Kizil C (2025). NCBP2-AS2 is a mitochondrial microprotein, regulates energy metabolism and neurogenesis, and is downregulated in Alzheimer's disease. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2025 Jan 27:2025.01.25.634884. doi: 10.1101/2025.01.25.634884. PMID: 39975220; PMCID: PMC11838228. PubMed