Research Interest

In general: To investigate protein-protein interactions using molecularbiological, biochemical and biophysical methods.

My special focus is on research on Alzheimer’s disease: Early diagnosis, treatment and elucidation of underlying molecular mechanisms.

Specific Projects

• D-peptides for early diagnosis and therapy of Alzheimer’s disease
• The development of an assay for ultrasensitive detection of pathologic protein aggregates in body fluids with diagnostic purposes
• Alternative treatment approaches using antibody fragments

Selected Publications

1. Funke SA, van Groen T, Kadish I, Bartnik D, Nagel-Steger L, Brener O, Sehl T, Batra-Safferling R, Moriscot C, Schoehn  G, Horn AHC. Müller-Schiffmann A, Korth C, Sticht H  and Willbold D (2010). Oral Treatment with the D-Enantiomeric Peptide D3 Improves Pathology and Behavior of Alzheimer’s disease Transgenic Mice. ACS Chem. Neuroscience 1, 639-648. PubMed

2. Müller-Schiffmann A, März-Berberich J, Andrjevna A, Rönicke R, Bartnik D, Brener O, Kutzsche J, Horn AHC, Hellmert M, Polkowska J, Gottmann K, Reymann K, Funke SA, Nagel-Steger L, Moriscot C, Schoehn G, Sticht H, Willbold D, Schrader T, Korth C (2010). Combining independent drug classes into superior, synergistically acting hybrid molecules. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 49, 8743-8746. PubMed

3. Funke SA, Wang L, Birkmann E, Willbold D (2010). Single particle detection system for Aß: Adaptation of surface-FIDA to laser scanning microscopy. Rejuvenation Res. 13, 206-209. PubMed

4. Liu HM, Funke SA, Willbold D (2010). Transport of Alzheimer’s disease amyloid-ß peptide binding D-amino acid peptides across an in vitro blood-brain barrier model. Rejuvenation Res. 13, 210-213. PubMed

5. Van Groen T, Wiesehan K, Funke SA, Kadish I, Nagel-Steger L and Willbold D (2008). Reduction of Alzheimer's disease amyloid plaque load in transgenic mice by D3, A D-enantiomeric peptide identified by mirror image phage display. ChemMedChem 3, 1848-1852. PubMed

6. Funke SA, Birkmann E, Henke F, Görtz P, Lange-Asschenfeldt C, Riesner D & Willbold D (2007). Single particle detection of amyloid-β aggregates associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 364, 902-907. PubMed

7. Bartnik D, Funke SA, Andrei-Selmer L-C, Bacher M, Dodel R, Willbold D (2010). Differently selected D-enantiomeric peptides act on different Aß species. Rejuvenation Res. 13, 202-205. PubMed