Career and scientific work:

Dr. Mandy Jeske studied biochemistry at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, where she completed her PhD under the supervision of Elmar Wahle. During her doctoral research, she developed an in vitro system that recapitulates the post-transcriptional regulation of the nanos gene, the determinant of posterior development in Drosophila.

Following her PhD, Dr. Jeske undertook an interdisciplinary postdoctoral position at the EMBL Heidelberg in the labs of Anne Ephrussi and Christoph Müller, where she acquired expertise in Drosophila genetics and structural biology. By combining these approaches, she uncovered molecular functions of the Oskar protein, the inducer of the Drosophila germline.

Since 2017, Dr. Jeske has led an independent research group at the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center (BZH), funded by the Emmy Noether Program of the DFG. Her team studies RNA-binding proteins that are essential for early animal development, focusing on understanding their molecular functions by using an interdisciplinary approach, combining RNA and protein biochemistry, structural biology, and Drosophila genetics. Currently, Dr. Jeske’s lab is working to elucidate the mechanisms behind the biogenesis of piRNAs – short non-coding RNAs that are critical for silencing transposons and ensuring genome stability in animal gonads.

Recently, Dr. Jeske’s team developed a novel assay, called ReLo, which is a rapid and simple test for studying interactions between structurally complex proteins, such as piRNA factors, in a cellular context. Using the ReLo assay, they defined a direct interaction network involving more than 20 piRNA factors. Several of the identified complexes have since been further characterized using a combination of ReLo and AlphaFold structural prediction. Their next goal is to study piRNA-associated protein complexes using experimental structural biology and genetic approaches to gain valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms that maintain genome stability in animals.

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