Research Areas
Growth and Development - focuses on the role of plant hormones and environmental factors for the regulation and adaptation of plant growth and developmental processes Biology of the Endomembrane System - projects investigate the importance of intracellular transport processes in plant and human cells. Signal transduction and post-translational modifications - deal with questions how cells regulate their genome and epigenome in response to signals from the environment and how this information is integrated at the level of protein modifications and stability. Glycobiology - research focuses on protein glycosylation and its biotechnological applications, e.g. for the production of recombinant glycoproteins in plants. Crop Science and Technology – using plants as production hosts and the targeted genetic optimization of crop plants is the focus of this research. Fungal Genetics and Pathogens - genetic and epigenetic mechanisms are investigated which allow fungi to communicate with the environment and to infect plant or human hosts. Applied aspects of this research include projects aiming at improved plant resistance against fungal pathogens or the discovery of novel bioactive microbial metabolites in the research platform “BiMM”. Our research projects are funded by competitive extramural funding program financed by national (e.g. FWF, FFG, NFB, WWTF) and international (ERC, EuropeanCommission) programs. Support for our research also comes from cooperative projects with industry. Labs of the DAGZ are located at the two BOKU sites Campus-Muthgasse (Vienna) and Campus-Tulln (30 km outside Vienna) and participate in the scientific initiatives VIBT - Vienna Institute of Technology (Campus Muthgasse) und BiRT – Bioresources and Technologies (Campus Tulln).