Prokaryotic Heme Biosynthesis

Heme biosynthesis is essential for almost all living organisms. Many pathogens utilize the "coproporhyrin-dependent" heme biosynthesis pathway, which was discovered in 2015.

We study the biochemistry of enzymes involved in prokaryotic heme biosynthesis in order to understand structure-function relationships with the ultimate goal to unravel each enzymes' reaction mechanism and their protein-protein interactions.

This basic research questions, which we address, pave the way to find novel antibiotic substances, which are highly needed given the emergence of many superbugs, exhibiting multiple resistances towards common antibiotic treatments.