Seal element of the university of freiburg in the shape of a clover

CIBSS – Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies

The researchers of the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS – Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies (CIBSS) at the University of Freiburg are dedicated to understanding the language that determines multicellular life in humans, animals and plants. CIBSS brings together 75 research groups from six faculties of the University of Freiburg, the Freiburg University Medical Centre and the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in cooperative and interdisciplinary research projects. The Cluster of Excellence CIBSS, which has existed since 2019, submitted its full proposal for a second funding phase to the German Research Foundation (DFG) on 22 August 2024 as part of the Excellence Strategy competition of the federal and state governments.

The participating research groups integrate knowledge from across more than 10 disciplines, ranging from cell and developmental biology, genetics, biochemistry, structural biology, molecular and synthetic biology, immunology, and plant sciences to bioinformatics, ethics, and law. The new programme builds on the collaborative interdisciplinary spirit and commitment of the CIBSS research community in advancing integrative biological signalling studies. The renewal proposal now seeks to secure funding for the next 7 year, beginning on 1 January 2026.

CIBSS’s fundamental signalling research provides the basis for identifying the causes of disease, developing new treatments and opening up opportunities to make agriculture more robust and sustainable, thus providing approaches to tackling global challenges in the areas of health, agriculture and food security.

This research programme will be bolstered and complemented by extensive measures to support early career researchers, foster international research collaboration and enhance science communication.

“The proposal for a second funding phase advances our collaborative research concept and is a huge achievement for CIBSS. Building on novel findings and innovative methods, it takes our current research programme even further and we are excited about the future and the scientific breakthroughs our joint initiative brings.”

Prof. Dr. Carola Hunte, Prof. Dr. Claudine Kraft, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Driever und Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn

CIBSS present and future speaker team members

Participating faculties

Speaker team

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Driever

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Driever is Professor of Developmental Biology at the Institute of Biology I at the Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg.

Prof. Dr. Carola Hunte

Prof. Dr. Carola Hunte is Professor of Biochemistry/Structural Biology at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg.

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn is Professor of Molecular Plant Physiology at the Institute of Biology II at the Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg.

Future speaker team member

Prof. Dr. Claudine Kraft

Prof. Dr. Claudine Kraft is Professor of Biochemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg.

Researchers

News

Current publications

  • Hofmann M, Thimme R, Schamel WW: PD-1 and LAG-3: synergistic fostering of T cell exhaustion. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41392-024-02000-1
  • Tey PY, Dufner A, Knobeloch KP, Pruneda JN, Clague MJ, Urbé S: Rapid turnover of CTLA4 is associated with a complex architecture of reversible ubiquitylation. J Cell Biol. 2025 Jan 6;224(1):e202312141. doi: 10.1083/jcb.202312141
  • Salié H, Wischer L, D’Alessio A, Godbole I, Suo Y, Otto-Mora P, Beck J, Neumann O, Stenzinger A, Schirmacher P, Fulgenzi CAM, Blaumeiser A, Boerries M, Roehlen N, Schultheiß M, Hofmann M, Thimme R, Pinato DJ, Longerich T, Bengsch B: Spatial single-cell profiling and neighbourhood analysis reveal the determinants of immune architecture connected to checkpoint inhibitor therapy outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma. Gut. 2024 Oct 14:gutjnl-2024-332837. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2024-332837.
  • Sharma M, Friedrich T, Oluoch P, Zhang N, Peruzzo F, Jha V, Pi L, Groot EP, Kornet N, Follo M, Aichinger E, Fleck C, Laux T: A coherent feed-forward loop in the Arabidopsis root stem cell organizer regulates auxin biosynthesis and columella stem cell maintenance. Nat Plants. 2024 Oct 11. doi: 10.1038/s41477-024-01810-z
  • Althoff LFJ, Kramer MM, Bührer B, Gaspar D, Radziwill G: Optogenetic Control of the Mitochondrial Protein Import in Mammalian Cells. Cells. 2024. doi: 10.3390/cells13191671
  • Brombacher E, Kreutz C: RTF: An R package for modelling time course data. Bioinformatics. 2024 Oct 9:btae597. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btae597.
  • Vogele D, Wöhrle S, Saller BS, Fröhlich K, Barta BA, Cosenza-Contreras M, Groß O, Schilling O: Size exclusion chromatography based proteomic and degradomic profiling of inflammasome-activated, murine bone marrow-derived dendritic cells highlights complex retention and release of cleavage products. Mol Omics. 2024 Oct 8. doi: 10.1039/d4mo00163j.
  • Dumas AA, Dalmau Gasull A, Prinz M: Beyond borders: the choroid plexus-immune communication during neuroinflammation. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2024 Oct 8;9(1):278. doi: 10.1038/s41392-024-01997-9.
  • Tufail MA, Jordan B, Hadjeras L, Gelhausen R, Cassidy L, Habenicht T, Gutt M, Hellwig L, Backofen R, Tholey A, Sharma CM, Schmitz RA: Uncovering the small proteome of Methanosarcina mazei using Ribo-seq and peptidomics under different nitrogen conditions. Nat Commun. 2024 Oct 6;15(1):8659. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53008-8.
  • Schiele MA, Crespo Salvador O, Lipovsek J, Schwarte K, Schlosser P, Zwanzger P, Arolt V, Baune BT, Köttgen A, Domschke K: Epigenome-Wide DNA Methylation in Unipolar Depression – Predictive Biomarker of Antidepressant Treatment Response? Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2024 Oct 5:pyae045. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyae045.