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Administrative data

Ruud Hovius

ruud.hovius@epfl.ch +41 21 693 11 11

EPFL SB ISIC LCBM
CH B3 424 (Bâtiment CH)
Station 6
1015 Lausanne

Expertise

•Protein structure, expression & purification •Molecular interaction & receptor activation •Fluorescence imaging & spectroscopy Signalling & sensing

Mission

=> Teaching: Lecture courses, tutorials and practicals in biochemistry, biophysical chemistry of membranes and signalling processes. Participating to the Commission d'Enseignement and Commission de l'Ecole Doctorale of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. => Research interests: Protein function and structure, Membrane protein (especially receptors and channels) expression, structure and function, biomolecular interaction, labeling with biophysical probes, fluorescence imaging and assay and sensor techniques, single molecule techniques.

BSc course EPFL : Practical BioChem & BioPhys

Practical introducing 6th Chemistry Bachelor students in genetic engineering, protein expression and purification, and biochemical and biophysical charaterisation of proteins.

BSc course Molecular and cellular biophysics II

.

Graduate course : ESONN - Grenoble

Module "Advanced biophysics for microsystems design" at the post-graduate European School on Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies (ESONN.fr) in Grenoble, organized by the IPNG, UJF, CNRS and CEA.

MSc course : Cellular signalling

Masters course on advanced concepts of various cellular signalling pathways and their interactions

MSc Course Chemical Biology

.

Selected publications

Reversible Sequential Binding Assays Probe Receptor Function in Single Cells

Schreiter, C.; M. Gjoni, R. Hovius, K. L. Martinez, J.-M. Segura, and H. Vogel.
Published in ChemBioChem (accepted) in

Lipid-coated Nanocrystals as Multi-functionalized Luminescent Scaffolds for Supramolecular Biological Assemblies.

Geissbuehler, I.; R. Hovius, K. L. Martinez, M. Adrian, K. R. Thampi and H. Vogel.
Published in Angew. Chem., 44,2005 in

Reversible site-selective labelling of proteins in live cells: The structure of the 5HT3 serotonin receptor.

Guignet, E. G.; R. Hovius and H. Vogel.
Published in Nature Biotechnology, 22, 2004 in

Highly fluorescent streptavidin-coated CdSe nanoparticles: Preparation in water, characterization, micropatterning

B�umle, M.; D. Stamou, J.-M. Segura, R. Hovius and H. Vogel
Published in Langmuir, 2004 in

Probing the function of G-protein coupled receptors in tethered cell membranes.

Martinez, K. L.; B. H. Meyer, R. Hovius, K. Lundstrom and H. Vogel
Published in Langmui, 19/26, 2003 in

Characterization of the ligand-binding site of the serotonin 5-HT3 receptor: The role of glutamate residues 97, 224, and 235

Schreiter, C.; R. Hovius, M. Costioli, H. Pick, S. Kellenberger, L. Schild, and H. Vogel
Published in J. Biol. Chem, 278, 2003 in

Factors influencing fluorescence correlation spectroscopy measurements on membranes: simulations and experiments

Milon S, Hovius R, Vogel H, Wohland T
Published in Chemical Physics, 288, Issues 2-3, 2003 in

Mapping the antagonist binding site of the serotonin type 3 receptor by fluorescence resonance energy transfer.

Vallotton, P; A.P. Tairi, T. Wohland, K. Friedrich-B�net, H. Pick, R. Hovius and H. Vogel
Published in Biochemistry, 40, 2001 in

Fluorescence techniques. Shedding light on ligand-receptor interactions.

Hovius, R.; P. Vallotton, T. Wohland and H. Vogel
Published in Trends Pharmacol Sci , 21, 2000 in

Study of ligand-receptor interactions by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy with different fluorophores: evidence that the homopentameric 5-hydroxytryptamine type 3As receptor binds only one ligand.

Wohland, T.; K. Friedrich, R. Hovius and H. Vogel
Published in Biochemistry, 38, 1999 in

Screening ligands for membrane protein receptors by total internal reflection fluorescence: the 5-HT3 serotonin receptor.

Schmid, E.L.; A.P. Tairi, R. Hovius and H. Vogel
Published in Anal Chem, 70, 1998 in

Ligand binding to the serotonin 5-HT3 receptor studied with a novel fluorescent ligand.

Tairi, A.P.; R. Hovius, H. Pick, H. Blasey, A. Bernard, A. Surprenant, K. Lundstr�m and H. Vogel,
Published in Biochemistry, 37, 1998 in

Metal ion trace detection by a chelator-modified gold electrode: A comparison of surface to bulk affinity.

Stora, T.; R. Hovius, Z. Dienes, M. Pachoud and H. Vogel,
Published in Langmuir, 13, 1997 in

Phospholipid asymmetry of the outer membrane of rat liver mitochondria. Evidence for the presence of cardiolipin on the outside of the outer membrane

Hovius, R.; J. Thijssen, P. van der Linden, K. Nicolay and B. de Kruijff,
Published in FEBS Lett, 330, 1993 in

Infoscience

Research

Patents

New conjugate of agonist ligand directed to ligand-gated ion channels of cysteine loop-family with chromophore, useful, e.g. in receptor proteins/their interaction with agonistic ligand and to study the effect of unlabelled ligands. J. Grandl, R. Hovius, H. Vogel, D. Bertrand, E. Sakr, F. Kotzyba-Hibert and M. Goeldner. Patent number: WO2007057428-A1 Publication date: 2007 Determining a receptor-ligand interaction useful in e.g. drug screening involves repetitive application of reversibly binding fluorescent ligands with fast association-dissociation kinetics . C. Schreiter, J.-M. Segura, H. Vogel, R. Hovius, K. Martinez and M. Gjoni Boillat. Patent number: WO2006105985-A1 Publication date: 2006

Current interests

Structure and function DNA-protein macromolecular complexes Real-time monitoring of structural dynamics and molecular interactions Single molecule techniques & cellular signalling

Teaching & PhD

Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector

Joachim Piguet

Courses

Experimental biochemistry and biophysics

CH-319

A 7-week long (4+8 h) experiment where you plan and construct a fluorescent sensor protein starting from DNA bricks. The protein will be expressed in and purified from E.coli, characterized by biochemical and spectroscopic methods. Your report will be in the style of a scientific paper or poster

ESONN

Graduate course : ESONN - Grenoble Module "Advanced biophysics for microsystems design" at the post-graduate European School on Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies (ESONN.fr) in Grenoble, organized by the IPNG, UJF, CNRS and CEA.