Stefanie Redemann
I have always been fascinated by how a single cell can become an entire organism. How does this cell know what it is supposed to do? How does it organize and structure itself? Is it not mind-blowing that such an elaborate structure like the spindle just assembles itself, fulfills its purpose and then disappears, most of the time without any errors?
After graduating from school, I had no clue what I wanted to be, too many interesting things, too many choices. However, I had somehow decided that university wasn’t for me and I send a bunch of applications for a vocational training to become a travel agent, a lab technician or a speech therapist. I ended up working for 3 years at a big pharmaceutical company, but then decided that this was certainly not the job I wanted to do for the next 40+ years. Encouraged by my boss at the company, I decided to continue my education and go to University.
As an undergraduate I studied Biology at the Technical University in Darmstadt (Germany) , focusing on Cell Biology and Biophysics. I finished my master thesis in the group of Damian Brunner at the European molecular laboratories (EMBL) in Heidelberg. Inspired by the science at EMBL, I joined the labs of Tony Hyman and Jonathon Howard at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and genetics in Dresden for my PhD, combining my passion for cell biology and biophysics.
Throughout my graduate studies I worked on the interface of Biology and Physics, enjoying the intellectual challenge and the different perspectives. My research was particularly focused on the role of the actin-myosin cortex during spindle positioning in the one-cell C. elegans embryo. During this first division the spindle is asymmetrically positioned towards the posterior cortex. This is thought to be driven by a larger number of force-generating complexes on the posterior cortex. We could show that the cortex is necessary to provide a rather rigid scaffold to resist the pulling forces created on astral microtubule during the positioning of the spindle. My project resulted in the first visualization of force-generating events on the cortex in C. elegans and allowed us to directly analyze the impact of a variety of proteins on the force-generation mechanism.
After my PhD, I joined the lab of Thomas Müller-Reichert at the Medical Theoretical Center in Dresden to learn tomography and expand my scientific portfolio. My aim was to reconstruct a complete mitotic spindle in C. elegans in order to understand how spindles are formed and transformed during mitosis. This project required tight and strong collaboration across scientific boundaries, involving computer scientists, mathematicians and biophysicist . I have always valued these collaborations and I am a strong believer that interdisciplinary collaborations facilitate new ideas and discoveries. They challenge us and force us to think out of the box.
In January 2018 I moved across the pond to start my own independent group at UVA. This is a big adventure and has been a great experience for me as well as my family. In my group I still follow my big question: How does a cell know what it is supposed to do and how does it organize and structure itself?
Stefanie Redemann, Assistant Professor
List of Publications
Lantzsch I, Yu CH, Chen YZ, Zimyanin V, Yazdkhasti H, Lindow N, Szentgyoergyi E, Pani AM, Prohaska S, Srayko M, Fürthauer S, Redemann S. Microtubule reorganization during female meiosis in C. elegans. Elife. 2021 Jun 11;10:e58903.
Lindow N, Brünig FN, Dercksen VJ, Fabig G, Kiewisz R, Redemann S, Müller-Reichert T, Prohaska S, Baum D. Semi-automatic stitching of filamentous structures in image stacks from serial-section electron tomography. J Microsc. 2021 Oct;284(1):25-44.
Shimamoto Y, Redemann S, Needleman D. Editorial: Mechanics of Cell Division. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020 Nov
Nazockdast E, Redemann S. Mechanics of the spindle apparatus. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2020 Nov;107:91-102.
Yu CH, Redemann S, Wu HY, Kiewisz R, Yoo TY, Conway W, Farhadifar R, Müller-Reichert T, Needleman D. Central spindle microtubules are strongly coupled to chromosomes during both anaphase A and anaphase B. Mol Biol Cell. 2019 Jul 24;:mbcE19010074.
Redemann S, Fürthauer S, Shelley M, Müller-Reichert T. Current approaches for the analysis of spindle organization. Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2019 Jul 4;.
Baumgart J, Kirchner M, Redemann S, Woodruff J, Verbavatz J, Jülicher F, Hyman A, Müller-Reichert T, Brugues J. Soluble tubulin is locally enriched at mitotic centrosomes in C. elegans. [preprint]. 2019 February; Available from: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/543066v1.
Lindow N, Redemann S, Brünig F, Fabig G, Müller-Reichert T, Prohaska S. Quantification of three-dimensional spindle architecture. Methods Cell Biol. 2018;145:45-64.
Zwicker D, Baumgart J, Redemann S, Müller-Reichert T, Hyman AA, Jülicher F.Positioning of Particles in Active Droplets. Phys Rev Lett. 2018 Oct 12;121(15):158102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.158102.
Chaaban S, Jariwala S, Hsu CT, Redemann S, Kollman JM, Müller-Reichert T, Sept D, Bui KH, Brouhard GJ. The Structure and Dynamics of C. elegans Tubulin Reveals the Mechanistic Basis of Microtubule Growth. Dev Cell. 2018 Oct 22;47(2):191-204.e8.
Redemann S, Lantzsch I, Lindow N, Prohaska S, Srayko M, Müller-Reichert T. A Switch in Microtubule Orientation during C. elegans Meiosis. Curr Biol. 2018 Sep 24;28(18):2991-2997.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.012.
Müller-Reichert T, Kiewisz R, Redemann S. Mitotic spindles revisited – new insights from 3D electron microscopy. J Cell Sci. 2018 Jan 30;131(3).
Redemann S, Baumgart J, Lindow N, Shelley M, Nazockdast E, Kratz A, Prohaska S, Brugués J, Fürthauer S, Müller-Reichert T. C. elegans chromosomes connect to centrosomes by anchoring into the spindle network. Nat Commun. 2017 May 11;8:15288.
Pécréaux J, Redemann S, Alayan Z, Mercat B, Pastezeur S, Garzon-Coral C, Hyman AA, Howard J. The Mitotic Spindle in the One-Cell C. elegans Embryo Is Positioned with High Precision and Stability. Biophys J. 2016 Oct 18;111(8):1773-1784.
Redemann S, Weber B, Möller M, Verbavatz JM, Hyman AA, Baum D, Prohaska S, Müller-Reichert T. The segmentation of microtubules in electron tomograms using Amira.Methods Mol Biol. 2014;1136:261-78.
Redemann S, Müller-Reichert T. Correlative light and electron microscopy for the analysis of cell division. J Microsc. 2013 Aug;251(2):109-12.
Redemann S, Schloissnig S, Ernst S, Pozniakowsky A, Ayloo S, Hyman AA, Bringmann H.Codon adaptation-based control of protein expression in C. elegans. Nat Methods. 2011 Mar;8(3):250-2. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1565.
Redemann S, Pecreaux J, Goehring NW, Khairy K, Stelzer EH, Hyman AA, Howard J.Membrane invaginations reveal cortical sites that pull on mitotic spindles in one-cell C. elegans embryos. PLoS One. 2010 Aug 20;5(8):e12301.
Newby Lambert M, Vöcker E, Blumberg S, Redemann S, Gajraj A, Meiners JC, Walter NG.Mg2+-induced compaction of single RNA molecules monitored by tethered particle microscopy. Biophys J. 2006 May 15;90(10):3672-85. .
Mendoza M, Redemann S, Brunner D. The fission yeast MO25 protein functions in polar growth and cell separation. Eur J Cell Biol. 2005 Dec;84(12):915-26.