Annemarie did her PhD work on the structural and fuctional characterization of mycobacterial Ser/Thr protein kinases 
and phosphatases in the lab of P. Alzari at the Institut Pasteur (Paris; France). She then did a postdoc in the lab of A. Musacchio at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan (Italy) and later at the Max Planck Institute (Dortmund; Germany). At the time the Musacchio lab was a pioneering european lab of integrative biology where both structural and cell biology approaches were used in synergy to address major biological questions. This work was focused on the structural and functional study of a large kinetochore complex (RZZ) involved in chromosome segregation during mitosis and a critical constituent of metazoan kinetochores (KTs).
During the postdoc time in the Musacchio lab she developed independent interests on microtubules and cilia biology, and was awarded a 3-year grant to work on an independent project in the lab of C. Janke at the Institut Curie (Orsay; France). The goal of this project was to work towards understanding the molecular mechanisms and functions of tubulin heterogeneity. The C-terminal domain of tubulin is crucial for determining microtubule identities as it is a hub for both genetically encoded, and post-translationally added tubulin heterogeneity. In order to study how spatially and temporally controlled modification patterns determine the properties and the functional fate of microtubules, we have set out to develop a series of tubulin tools that will allow for a controlled and systematic study of a specific modification of tubulin: glycylation. Annemarie will present the latest results on heterologous expression of recombinant tubulin and functional characterization of a tubulin-modifying enzyme TTLL3.
