Dr. Dominic Docter

Dr. Dominic Docter
Junior Group Leader
Molecular and cellular Oncology/NanoBioMedicine
ENT Department, Langenbeckstr. 1, 55131 Mainz
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My research focuses on the importance of the protein corona around nanoparticles and how this entity interacts with biological systems, as the protein corona constitutes a major element of the biological identity of the engineered nanomaterials (ENM). Besides the widespread technical use of nanomaterials, nano-enabled biomedical and biotechnological applications steadily increase, and thus nanomaterials are also increasingly released into the environment. Due to their high free surface energy, nanomaterials adsorb biomolecules upon contact with biological fluids. Particularly the protein corona is interacting with biological systems and constitutes not only a major element of the biological identity of the nanoparticle but may also modulate nanotoxicological effects.

Key techniques: Cell culture, confocal and fluorescence imaging, Immunoblot analysis, PAGE, metabolic assays, cytotoxicity assays, LC-MS, High throughput screening

Research system/organism: Human cell systems and specimen, rodent

1. Docter D., Strieth S., Westmeier D., Hayden O., Gao M., Knauer S. K., Stauber R. H. (2014), No king without a crown–impact of the nanoparticle-protein corona on biological environments. Nanomedicine. (IF: 5.260, accepted).
2. Docter D., Bantz C., Westmeier D., Galla H. J., Wang Q., Kirkpatrick J. C., Nielsen P., Maskos M., Stauber R. H. (2014), The protein-corona protects against size- and dosedependent toxicity of amorphous silica nanoparticles. Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology. 2014, 5, 1380-1392 (IF: 2.374).
3. Docter D.*, Distler U.*, Storck W., Wünsch D., Knauer S. K., Tenzer S., Stauber R. H. (2014), Identification and quantitative profiling of nanoparticles’ protein-coronas. Nature Protocols 2014 Sep;9(9):2030-44. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2014.139. *equal contributor. (IF: 7.96).
4. Tenzer S.*, Docter D.*, Kuharev J., Musyanovych A., Fetz V., Hecht R., Schlenk F., Fischer D., Kiouptsi K., Reinhardt C., Landfester K., Schild H., Maskos M., Knauer S.K., Stauber R.H. (2013) Rapid formation of plasma protein corona critically affects nanoparticle pathophysiology. Nature Nanotechnology, 8(10):772-81. *equal contributor. (IF: 31.170).
5. Tenzer S.*, Docter D.*, Rosfa S., Wlodarski A., Kuharev J., Rekik A., Knauer S.K., Bantz C., Nawroth T., Bier C., Sirirattanapan J., Mann W., Treuel L., Zellner R., Maskos M., Schild H., Stauber R.H. (2011) Nanoparticle size is a critical physicochemical determinant of the human blood plasma corona: a comprehensive quantitative proteomic analysis. ACS Nano, 5, 7155-7167. *equal contributor. (IF: 12.524).