Our research perspective is to apply synthetic biology approaches to control and understand eukaryotic signalling processes and regulatory networks in a quantitative and spatiotemporally resolved manner. To this aim I follow an interdisciplinary approach at the interface of engineering and life sciences, focusing on synthetic signalling networks and metabolic pathways, biological sensors, and chemical and optical switches. 

1. Ochoa-Fernandez R, Abel NB, Wieland F-G, Schlegel J, Koch L-A, Miller JB, Engesser R, Giuriani G, Brandl SM, Timmer J, Weber W, Ott T, Simon R and Zurbriggen MD “Optogenetic control of gene expression in plants in the presence of ambient white light”. Nature Methods (2020) 17:717-725 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-020-0868-y
2. Christie JM* and Zurbriggen MD* “Optogenetics in plants” New Phytologist (2020) DOI: 10.1111/nph.17008 *Corresponding authors
3. Blanco-Touriñan N, Legris M, Minguet EG, Costigliolo-Rojas C, Nohales MA, Iniesto E, Garcia-Leon M, Pacin M, Heucken N, Blomeier T, Locascio A, Cerny M, Esteve-Bruna D, Diez-Diaz M, Brzobohaty B, Frerigmann H, Zurbriggen MD, Kay SA, Rubio V, Blazquez MA, Casal JJ and Alabadi D “COP1 destabilizes DELLA proteins in Arabidopsis” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) USA (2020) 117(24):13792-13799 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1907969117
4. Niemeyer M, Moreno Castillo E, Ihling CH, Iacobucci C, Wilde V, Hellmuth A, Hoehenwarter W, Samodelov SL, Zurbriggen MD, Kastritis PL, Sinz A and Calderon-Villalobos LIA “Flexibility of intrinsically disordered degrons in AUX/IAA proteins reinforces auxin co-receptor assemblies” Nature Communications (2020) 11:2277 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16147-2
5. Golonka D, Fischbach P, Jena SG, Kleeberg JRW, Essen L-O, Toettcher JE and Zurbriggen MD*/Möglich A* “Deconstructing an repurposing light-regulated protein:protein interactions of plant phytochromes” Communications Biology (2019), 2:448 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-019-0687-9 *Corresponding authors
6. Chatelle C, Ochoa-Fernandez R, Engesser R, Schneider N, Beyer HM, Jones A, Timmer J, Zurbriggen MD*/Weber W* "A green light-responsive system for the control of transgene expression in mammalian and plant cells" ACS Synthetic Biology (2018) 7(5):1349-1358. DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.7b00450 *Corresponding authors
7. Samodelov SL and Zurbriggen MD “Quantitatively understanding plant signalling: novel theoretical-experimental approaches” Trends in Plant Science (2017) 22(8) DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2017.06.006
8. Samodelov SL, Beyer HM, Guo X, Augustin M, Jia K-P, Baz L, Ebenhöh O, Beyer P, Weber W, Al-Babili S and Zurbriggen MD “StrigoQuant: a genetically encoded biosensor for quantifying strigolactone activity and specificity” Science Advances(2016) 2:e1601266 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601266
9. Beyer HM, Juillot S, Herbst K, Samodelov SL, Müller K, Schamel WW, Römer W, Schäfer E, Nagy F, Strähle U, Weber W and Zurbriggen MD, "Red light-regulated reversible nuclear localization of proteins in mammalian cells and zebra fish" ACS Synthetic Biology (2015) 4(7) DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.5b00004 Cover Article Issue July 2015
10. Müller K, Zurbriggen MD and Weber W, "Control of gene expression using a red/far-red light-responsive bi-stable toggle switch" Nature Protocols (2014) 9(3), 622-632. DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2014.038