Dr. Michal Janitz
- Position: Senior Lecturer
- Room: Office s123/Lab s119, Samuels
- Phone: (+61 2) 9385 8608
- Fax: (+61 2) 9385 1483
- email: m.janitz@unsw.edu.au
Professional Experience
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2000-2008 Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin
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1998-1999 Postdoctoral Fellow, German Centre for Rheumatism Research
Research Contribution
Michal has extensive experience in the field of functional genomics and regulation of gene expression. His scientific achievements align to two lines of research: (i) study of regulation of transcription and (ii) development and application of technologies for functional genomics research. During his PhD studies and subsequently at the German Centre for Rheumatism Research, Michal specialised in investigating the influence of the sequence polymorphism within the promoter regions of MHC class II genes in several inbred mice strains (Janitz et al. 1997; Janitz et al. 1998; Cowell et al. 1998).
Joining the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics converged with Michal’s growing interest in studying transcription at the genome-wide level. Amongst others, he was involved in collaborative projects to characterise cDNA sequences on the level of the whole transcriptome in mice T helper cells and bovine brain (Gutjahr et al. 2005; Jann et al. 2006), respectively.
In recent years, Michal has focused on developing a transfected-cell array as a high-throughput genomic tool for functional analysis of genes and their products. This resulted in application of the cell arrays for subcellular protein localisation studies (Hu et al. 2006), protein-protein interaction screens (Fiebitz et al. 2008) and functional promoter analysis. In addition, with collaborative partners in national and European Community research programs, he applied gene expression profiling studies to identify the genes involved in T helper lymphocytes type 1 immune response (Niesner et al. 2008) and differentiation of murine palatal development (Nogai et al. 2008). His research group also developed miniaturised microarray platforms for DNA hybridization studies using PNA- (Bauer et al. 2004) and LNA-modified oligonucleotide probes (Guerasimova et al. 2006; Liu et al. 2006 and 2007), thus contributing to more efficient exploration of the genome structure and function.
Recently, Michal successfully assembled a group of leading scientists and commercial vendors in the field of next-generation DNA sequencing to publish a comprehensive text on this state-of-the-art technology and its cutting edge application in genome research. This book is the only comprehensive resource on the market so far that is devoted to the rapidly developing field of whole genome sequencing.
Michal’s current research focuses on allele- and tissue-specific regulation of transcritption, which is especially important for characterisation of individual phenotypic features of the organism, in particular humans. For example, linking sequence information such as SNP pattern in promoter regions to gene expression levels might provide comprehensive insights into haplotype-specific control mechanisms of transcriptional machinery. The ultimate research goal is to contribute to the understanding of the genome function at the level of the individual. This haplotype-specific view on the genome should not only accelerate understanding of the diversity of people, but also contribute to the development of individually tailored, more effective therapy.
Honours and Awards
- 2009: Consultant to German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment re application of genomic methods as an alternative to animal experiments
- 2008 to present: Member of Editorial Board of Genomics Insights
- 2007: Consultant to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research concerning development of funding schemes in the field of genomic technologies
- Reviewer for scientific journals including: Nature Methods, Nature Biotechnology, Chemistry & Biology, Biotechniques, Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening, BMC Genomics, Journal of Biotechnology, Biomolecular Engineering, Trends in Biochemical Sciences, Journal of Rheumatology
Active Research Projects
- Adhesion molecules in neuronal physiology and Alzheimer’s disease
- Brain Transcriptome Profiling in Alzheimer’s Disease Using RNA-Seq
Publications
- Cheng, X., Guerasimova, A., Manke, T., Rosenstiel, P., Haas, S., Warnatz, H.J., Querfurth, R., Nietfeld, W., Vanhecke, D., Lehrach, H., Yaspo, M.L. & Janitz, M. (2009)
- Screening of human gene promoter activities using transfected-cell arrays.
- Gene (in press)
- Janitz, M. (2008)
- Next-generation genome sequencing - towards personalized medicine.
- Ed.: Janitz M; Wiley-VCH, Heidelberg, ISBN: 978-3-527-32090-5
- Niesner, U., Albrecht, I., Janke, M., Doebis, C., Loddenkemper, C., Lexberg, M.H., Eulenburg, K., Kreher, S., Koeck, J., Baumgrass, R., Bonhagen, K., Kamradt, T., Enghard, P., Humrich, J.Y., Rutz, S., Schulze-Topphoff, U., Aktas, O., Bartfeld, S., Radbruch, H., Hegazy, A.N., Löhning, M., Baumgart, D.C., Duchmann, R., Rudwaleit, M., Thomas Haeupl, T., Gitelman, I., Krenn, V., Gruen, J., Sieper, J., Zeitz, M., Wiedenmann, B., Zipp, F., Hamann, A., Janitz, M., Scheffold, A., Burmester, G.R., Chang, H.D., Radbruch, A. (2008)
- Autoregulation of Th1-mediated inflammation by twist1 .
- J Exp Med. 205(8):1889-901
- Fiebitz, A., Nyarsik, L., Haendler, B., Hu, Y-H., Wagner, F., Thamm, S., Lehrach, H., Janitz, M. and Vanhecke, D. (2008)
- High-throughput mammalian two-hybrid screening for protein-protein interactions using transfected cell arrays
- BMC Genomics. 9:68
- Nogai H, Rosowski M, Grün J, Rietz A, Debus N, Schmidt G, Lauster C, Janitz M, Vortkamp A, Lauster R. (2007)
- Follistatin antagonizes transforming growth factor-beta3-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition in vitro: implications for murine palatal development supported by microarray analysis.
- Differentiation, 76:404-416
- Janitz, M. (2007)
- Assigning functions to genes - the main challenge of the post-genomic era.
- Physiol Biochem Pharmacol. 159:115-129
- Liu, J-P., Drungowski, M., Nyársik, L., Schwartz, R., Lehrach, H., Herwig, R. and Janitz, M. (2007)
- Oligonucleotide fingerprinting of arrayed genomic DNA sequences using LNA-modified hybridization probes.
- Comb Chem High Throughput Screen. 10:269-276.
- Jann OC, Aerts J, Jones M, Hastings N, Law A, McKay S, Marques E, Prasad A, Yu J, Moore SS, Floriot S, Mahé M-F, Eggen A, Silveri L, Negrini R, Milanesi E, Ajmone-Marsan P, Valentini A, Marchitelli C, Savarese M, Janitz M, Herwig R, Hennig S, Gorni C, Connor E, Sonstegard T, Smith T, Drögemüller C, Williams JL. (2006)
- A second generation radiation hybrid map to aid the assembly of the bovine genome sequence
- BMC Genomics, 7:283.
- Liu, J.P., Guerasimova, A., Schwartz, R., Lange, M., Lehrach, H., Nyarsik, L. and Janitz, M. (2006)
- LNA-modified oligodeoxynucleotide hybridization with DNA microarrays printed on nanoporous membrane slides.
- Comb Chem High Throughput Screen. 9:591-597
- Hu, Y.H., Warnatz, H.J., Vanhecke, D., Wagner, F., Fiebitz, A., Thamm, S., Kahlem, P., Lehrach, H., Yaspo, M.L. and Janitz, M. (2006)
- Cell array-based intracellular localization screening reveals novel functional features of human chromosome 21 proteins
- BMC Genomics. 7:155.
- Vanhecke, D. and Janitz, M. (2006)
- High-Throughput Analysis of Gene Function in Mammalian Cells Using Transfected Cell Arrays
- In: Encyclopedic Reference of Genomics & Proteomics in Molecular Medicine, Eds.: Ganten D, Ruckpaul K.; Springer Verlag, pp 795-799.
- Janitz M, Vanhecke D, Lehrach H. (2006)
- High-throughput RNA interference in functional genomics.
- Handb Exp Pharmacol, 173:97-104
- Guerasimova, A., Nyarsik, L., Liu, J.P., Schwartz, R., Lange, M., Lehrach, H. and Janitz, M. (2005)
- Liquid-based hybridization assay with real-time detection in miniaturized array platforms.
- Biomol Eng. 23:35-40.
- Hu, Y.H., Vanhecke, D., Lehrach, H. and Janitz, M. (2005)
- High-throughput subcellular protein localization using cell arrays
- Biochem Soc Trans. 33:1407-1408
- Vanhecke D, Janitz M. (2005)
- Functional genomics using high-throughput RNA interference
- Drug Discov Today, 10:205-212.
- Gutjahr, C., Murphy, D., Lueking, A., Koenig, A., Janitz, M., O'Brien, J., Korn, B., Horn, S., Lehrach, H. and Cahill, D.J. (2005)
- Mouse protein arrays from a TH1 cell cDNA library for antibody screening and serum profiling
- Genomics. 85:285-296
- Illiger, J., Herwig, R., Steinfath, M., Przewieslik, T., Elge, T., Bull, C., Radelof, U., Lehrach, H. and Janitz M. (2004)
- Establishment of T cell-specific and natural killer cell-specific unigene sets: towards high-throughput genomics of leukaemia.
- Eur J Immunogenet. 6:253-257.
- Vanhecke, D. and Janitz, M. (2004)
- High-throughput gene silencing using cell arrays
- Oncogene. 23:8353-8358.
- Bauer O, Guerasimova A, Sauer S, Thamm S, Steinfath M, Herwig R, Janitz M, Lehrach H, Radelof U. (2004)
- Multiplexed hybridizations of positively charge-tagged peptide nucleic acids detected by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
- Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom, 18:1821-1829
- Bauer O, Herwig R, Radelof U, Lehrach H, Janitz M. (2003)
- OFP – oligonucleotide fingerprinting. In: Analysing Gene Expression.
- A Handbook of Methods, Possibilities and Pitfalls. Eds.: Lorkowski S, Cullen P.; Wiley-VCH, pp.463-471.
- Malecova, B., Ramser, J., O'Brien, J.K., Janitz, M., Judova, J., Lehrach, H.and Simuth, J. (2003)
- Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) mrjp gene family: computational analysis of putative promoters and genomic structure of mrjp1, the gene coding for the most abundant protein of larval food.
- Gene. 303:165-175.