Niebert

Marcus Niebert studied biology at the Ruhr-Universitaet in Bochum, Germany preparing his diploma thesis in the field of developmental neurobiology: "Characterization of delayed rectifier potassium channels Kv3.1b and Kv3.2 in the visual cortex of the rat" in the department of Zoology and Neurobiology.

After university, Marcus changed to the Federal Paul-Ehrlich-Institut in Langen, Germany, to begin his Ph.D thesis in virology with the title "Characterisation of porcine endogenous retroviruses: Analysis of molecular organisation, localisation, prevalence and phylogeny".

Marcus then spent one year as a post-doc with the Robert Koch-Institut in Berlin, Germany, continuing his studies of human and porcine endogenous retroviruses.

Marcus joined the Center for Nanostructural Bioengineering in early 2004 and has a key leadership role in NPB with overall responsibility for scientific research that underpins CBE's work in virus-inspired nanoparticle product design and functional testing.

This is a selection of publications:

1. Tönjes RR, Czauderna F, Fischer N, Krach U, Boller K, Chardon P, Rogel-Gaillard C, Niebert M, Scheef G, Werner A, Kurth R. 2000. Molecularly cloned porcine endogenous retroviruses replicate on human cells. Transplant Proc. 32: 1158-1161

2. Niebert M, Rogel-Gaillard C, Chardon P, Tönjes RR. 2002. Characterization of chromosomally assigned replication-competent gamma porcine endogenous retroviruses derived from a large white pig and expression in human cells. J Virol. 76: 2714-2720.

3. Niebert M, Scheef G, Tönjes RR. 2002. Wie viele funktionale porcine endogene Retroviren (PERV) hat das Schwein? Transplantationsmedizin 14: 166-170

4. Niebert M and Tönjes RR. 2003. Molecular cloning and functional characterization of infectious PERV and development of diagnostic tests. In: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, Vol. Xenotransplantation No. 278. Editors: Wilson C and Salomon DR, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, New York, 217-237

5. Fischer N, Krach U, Niebert M and Tönjes RR. 2003. Detection of porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) using highly specific antisera. Virology, 311: 222-228

6. Niebert M and Tönjes RR. 2003. Analyses of prevalence, distribution and polymorphisms of six replication-competent and chromosomally assigned porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERV) in individual pigs and pig subspecies, Virology, 313: 427-434

7. Niebert M, Kurth R and Tönjes RR. 2003. Retroviral safety: Analyses of phylogeny, prevalence and polymorphisms of porcine endogenous retroviruses. Annals of Transplantation, 8: 56-64

8. Tönjes RR and Niebert M. 2003. Relative age of proviral porcine endogenous retrovirus sequences in Sus scrofa based on molecular clock hypothesis. J. Virol, 77: 12363-12368

9. Niebert M and Tönjes RR. 2004. Origin of porcine endogenous retrovirus classes by recombination and spread in suiformes. J. Virol, 79: 649-654.

Additionally, some results as well as technologies developed in Marcus' Ph.D. thesis were registered with the german patent office on March, 9^th 2001 under no. 101114338.

Tönjes RR, Krach U, Niebert M. Replication-competent molecular clones of porcine endogenous retrovirus class A and class B derived from pig and human cells.