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Prof. Dr. Leonhard Möckl

  • Professorship for Nano-optical Imaging
  • Associated Group Leader
  • Room A.3.428
  • Phone +49 9131 7133115
  • Email
  • Head of research group Physical Glycosciences

Leonhard Möckl studied Chemistry and Biochemistry at LMU Munich. He obtained his PhD in 2015 with a thesis on the role of the glycocalyx in membrane protein organization. In 2016, he joined the lab of W.E. Moerner at Stanford University, where he used single-molecule techniques to investigate the glycocalyx and furthermore developed deep-learning based approaches for single-molecule studies. In 2020, he joined the MPL as an independent group leader. Since 2024, he holds the professorship for Nano-optical Imaging at FAU, located at the newly established CITABLE.

In his free time, he loves to read, to play the piano, to hike, and to play volleyball.

2022

Small molecule inhibitors of mammalian glycosylation

Karim Almahayni, Malte Spiekermann, Antonio Fiore, Guoqiang Yu, Kayvon Pedram, Leonhard Möckl

Matrix Biology Plus 16 100108 (2022) | Journal | PDF

Glycans are one of the fundamental biopolymers encountered in living systems. Compared to polynucleotide and polypeptide biosynthesis, polysaccharide biosynthesis is a uniquely combinatorial process to which interdependent enzymes with seemingly broad specificities contribute. The resulting intracellular, cell surface, and secreted glycans play key roles in health and disease, from embryogenesis to cancer progression. The study and modulation of glycans in cell and organismal biology is aided by small molecule inhibitors of the enzymes involved in glycan biosynthesis. In this review, we survey the arsenal of currently available inhibitors, focusing on agents which have been independently validated in diverse<br>systems. We highlight the utility of these inhibitors and drawbacks to their use, emphasizing the need for innovation for basic research as well as for therapeutic applications.

Fluorophores’ talk turns them dark

Karim Almahayni, Malte Spiekermann, Leonhard Möckl

Nature Methods 19 932-933 (2022) | Journal

Dipole–dipole crosstalk between fluorophores separated by a distance of less than 10 nm induces changes in their photophysics, which adds a challenge to localization microscopy in the sub-10-nm regime.

Multi-color super-resolution imaging to study human coronavirus RNA during cellular infection

Jiarui Wang, Mengting Han, Anish R. Roy, Haifeng Wang, Leonhard Möckl, Leiping Zeng, W.E. Moerner, Lei S. Qi

Cell Reports Methods 2 (2) (2022) | Journal | PDF

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the third human coronavirus within 20 years that gave rise to a life-threatening disease and the first to reach pandemic spread. To make therapeutic headway against current and future coronaviruses, the biology of coronavirus RNA during infection must be precisely understood. Here, we present a robust and generalizable framework combining high-throughput confocal and super-resolution microscopy imaging to study coronavirus infection at the nanoscale. Using the model human coronavirus HCoV-229E, we specifically labeled coronavirus genomic RNA (gRNA) and double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) via multi-color RNA immunoFISH and visualized their localization patterns within the cell. The 10-nm resolution achieved by our approach uncovers a striking spatial organization of gRNA and dsRNA into three distinct structures and enables quantitative characterization of the status of the infection after antiviral drug treatment. Our approach provides a comprehensive imaging framework that will enable future investigations of coronavirus fundamental biology and therapeutic effects.

Here you can download Leonhard's CV.

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