Principal Investigator Marion Jasnin
The Cryoskeleton Lab
Research
Our group uses in situ cryo-electron tomography methodologies, including correlative cryo-focused ion beam milling sample preparation and image processing to reveal actin architectures directly inside the native cellular environment. We explore the diversity of actin structures involved in invasion, including podosomes (Jasnin et al. Nat Commun 2022), invadopodia, and other actin-propelled membrane protrusions, as well as in cell contractility (Burbaum, Schneider et al. Nat Commun 2021). We develop computational tools for in-cell structural analysis of actin organization. For all these exciting projects, we collaborate with international teams of biologists, biophysicists and biochemists to combine structural, molecular, cellular and theoretical approaches.


Dr. Marion Jasnin
Principal investigator, Cryoskeleton Lab
Marion received her PhD in Biophysics from Joseph Fourier University in 2007 under Professor Giuseppe Zaccai, where she exploited neutron scattering to explore water dynamics and macromolecular motions directly inside living cells. Her early postdoctoral work in the Department of Professor Wolfgang Baumeister at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry was supported by two postdoctoral fellowships (EMBO and Marie Curie fellowships, 2011-2013), and the award of an HFSP Program Grant (2016-2021) gave her the opportunity to start her own subgroup. With Renaud Poincloux / IPBS, she then obtained an ANR-DFG grant (cryoAdhesome, 2020-2024) to establish podosomes as a model system for structure-function analysis of the actin cytoskeleton in a cellular system that has direct implications for in vivo function, such as during bone turnover, tissue and cancer invasion. She also recently built a consortium with teams from the Institut Jacques-Monod, LPTMS and Sorbonne University to model podosome mechanics from the molecular scale up to the mesoscale, and were awarded an MIC grant (2020-2023). In 2022, she joined the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus as a Principal Investigator.

Factsheet
Dr. Marion Jasnin
Positions and Career
2022-present
Principal Investigator – Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, Helmholtz Munich
2017-2022
Project Group Leader – Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
2010-2016
Postdoc (Wolfgang Baumeister) – Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
2008-2009
Postdoc (Giuseppe Zaccai) – Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL)
2004-2007
Graduate Student (Giuseppe Zaccai and Moevea Tehei) – Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS)
2004
Master Student (Daniel Riveline) – Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique (LIPhy)
2003
Student Intern (Nils O. Petersen) – Western University, Department of Chemistry
Education
2007
PhD in Biophysics – Joseph Fourier University, Department of Physics
2004
MSc in Materials Physics – Joseph Fourier University, Department of Physics
2004
Diplôme National d’Ingénieur in Physics – Grenoble INP - Phelma
Honors and Awards
2016-2021
Participation in an HFSP Program Grant (Grant number RGP0035/2016)
2012-2013
Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (Grant number 273192)
2011
EMBO Long-Term Fellowship (Grant number 1099-2010)
2008-2009
ILL Postdoctoral Fellowship
2004-2007
Graduate Research Fellowship from the French Ministry of Education
Grenoble INP Graduate Lecturer Fellowship
2003-2004
Joseph Fourier University Masters Scholarship
Current Third Party Funding
2020-2024
ANR-DFG NLE 2020 – Individual Research Grant (CryoAdhesome, Grant number JA-3038/2-1)
2020-2023
ITMO Cancer Aviesan call 2020 – Participation in an MIC Grant (Multiscale Modelling of Invadosome Force Sensing)
Software Scientist

Brice Beinsteiner
PhD in Structural Biology, Strasbourg University
Focus: Image processing, cryo-FIB/cryo-ET
PhD Thesis: "Origin and evolution of nuclear receptors and structural study of the first steroid, ERR"
PhD Students

Jonathan Schneider
MSc in Biochemistry, LMU Munich
Focus: Subtomogram averaging, polarity analysis
Master Thesis: "The molecular architecture of human macrophage podosomes studied by cryo-electron tomography"

Thomas Drexler
MSc in Biophysics, Technical University Munich
Focus: Image analysis, cryo-FIB/cryo-ET
Master Thesis: "Cyclic linear transport and directed motion in DNA Origami Devices"

Ye Liu
MSc in Mathematics, Technical University Munich
Focus: Deep learning, image analysis
Master Thesis: "Multi-modality microscopy image style transfer for nuclei segmentation"
Ye Liu is a joint PhD student between Tingying Peng's Helmholtz AI group and Marion Jasnin's HPC group

Amelie Niedermeier
MSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Bayreuth
Focus: cryo-FIB/cryo-ET
Master Thesis: "Functional and structural characterization of the modulation of human sirtuins 3 and 5 by small molecules"
Master Student

Christina Correll
BSc in Biology, LMU Munich
Focus: 3D-correlative FIB milling
Bachelor Thesis: "The role of high-resolution electron microscopy in times of Corona and Ebola"
Lab Manager

Selected Publications
Molecular-scale visualization of sarcomere contraction within native cardiomyocytes
Laura Burbaum, Jonathan Schneider, Sarah Scholze, Ralph T Böttcher, Wolfgang Baumeister, Petra Schwille, Jürgen M Plitzko, Marion Jasnin, Nat Commun. 12:4086
More DetailsElasticity of podosome actin networks produces nanonewton protrusive forces
Marion Jasnin, Jordan Hervy, Stéphanie Balor, Anaïs Bouissou, Amsha Proag, Raphaël Voituriez, Jonathan Schneider, Thomas Mangeat, Isabelle Maridonneau-Parini, Wolfgang Baumeister, Serge Dmitrieff, Renaud Poincloux. Nat Commun. 13:3842
More DetailsCapturing actin assemblies in cells using in situ cryo-electron tomography
Jonathan Schneider, Marion Jasnin, Eur J Cell Biol. 101:151224
More DetailsThree-dimensional organization of the cytoskeleton: A cryo-electron tomography perspective
Saikat Chakraborty, Marion Jasnin, Wolfgang Baumeister, Protein Sci. 29:1302-20
More DetailsThe architecture of traveling actin waves revealed by cryo-electron tomography
Marion Jasnin, Florian Beck, Mary Ecke, Yoshiyuki Fukuda, Antonio Martinez-Sanchez, Wolfgang Baumeister, Günther Gerisch, Structure. 27:1211-23.e5
More DetailsActin organization in cells responding to a perforated surface, revealed by live imaging and cryo-electron tomography
Marion Jasnin, Mary Ecke, Wolfgang Baumeister, Günther Gerisch, Structure. 24:1031-43
More DetailsQuantitative analysis of filament branch orientation in Listeria actin comet tails
Marion Jasnin, Alvaro H Crevenna, Biophys J. 110:817-26
More DetailsReversible membrane pearling in live cells upon destruction of the actin cortex
Doris Heinrich, Mary Ecke, Marion Jasnin, Ulrike Engel, Günther Gerisch, Biophys J. 106:1079-91
More DetailsThree-dimensional architecture of actin filaments in Listeria monocytogenes comet tails
Marion Jasnin, Shoh Asano, Edith Gouin, Reiner Hegerl, Jürgen M Plitzko, Elizabeth Villa, Pascale Cossart, Wolfgang Baumeister, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 10:20521-6
More DetailsContact us

Helmholtz Pioneer Campus
Helmholtz Zentrum München
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt (GmbH)
Ingolstädter Landstr. 1
85764 Neuherberg
Germany