Anja Henning

Dr. Anja Henning-Knechtel is working with Prof. Serdal Kirmizialtin (NYUAD, UAE) towards a deeper understanding of nucleic acids interacting with ions and proteins, using computer simulations. She obtained her MSc in nanobiophysics and PhD in chemistry from TU Dresden, Germany, both with focus on structural and functional DNA nanotechnology. The accompanied experimental research work was pursued in the labs of Prof. Michael Mertig (TU Dresden) and Prof. Itamar Willner (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel). Thereafter she worked as postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. Hagan Bayley (Oxford University, UK) on novel DNA-based design strategies for nanopores, and collaborated with the group of Andrew D. Hamilton (NYU, US) on the development of inhibitors against amyloid-beta aggregation and cytotoxicity.

Publications

1. Anja Henning-Knechtel, Devarajan Thirumalai and Serdal Kirmizialtin, Differences in Ion-RNA binding modes due to charge density variations explain the stability of RNA in monovalent salts, bioRxiv Under Revision, 2022

2. Weiwei He*, Anja Henning-Knechtel* and Serdal Kirmizialtin, Visualizing RNA Structures by SAXS-driven MD Simulations, Frontiers in Bioinformatics, 2022, doi:10.3389/fbinf.2022.781949 (*Equal first author contribution)

3. Anja Henning-Knechtel, Sunil Kumar, Gennaro Esposito, Serdal Kirmizialtin, Astrid Gräslund, Andrew D. Hamilton et al., Designed Cell-Penetrating Peptide Inhibitors of Amyloid-beta Aggregation and Cytotoxicity, Cell Reports Physical Science 2020, 1, 100014, doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100014
   Among the journal’s 10 most-read papers of 2020

4. S. Kumar, A. Henning-Knechtel, M. Magzoub and A. D. Hamilton, Peptidomimetic-based multi-domain targeting offers critical evaluation of Aβ structure and toxic function, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 6562–6574, doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b13401

5. A. Henning-Knechtel_, J. Knechtel and M. Magzoub (_first and corresponding author), DNA-assisted oligomerization of pore-forming toxin monomers into precisely-controlled protein channels, Nucleic Acids Res. 2017, 45, 12057-12068, doi:10.1093/nar/gkx990 Selected as breakthrough article and cover picture of the issue

6. S. Kumar, A. Henning-Knechtel, I. Chehade, M. Magzoub and A. D. Hamilton, Foldamer-mediated structural rearrangement attenuates Aβ oligomerization and cytotoxicity, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 17098-17108, doi: 10.1021/jacs.7b08259 Cover picture of the issue

7. R. Weichelt, S. Leubner, A. Henning-Knechtel, M. Mertig, N. Gaponik, T.-L. Schmidt and A. Eychmüller, Methods to characterize the oligonucleotide functionalization of quantum dots, Small 2016, 12 (34):4763-4771, doi: 10.1002/smll.201601525

8. A. Henning-Knechtel, M. Wiens, M. Lakatos, A. Heerwig, F. Ostermaier, N. Haufe and M. Mertig, Dielectrophoresis of gold nanoparticles conjugated to DNA origami structures, Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 948–956, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.87

9. R. Schachoff, M. Selmke, A. Bregulla, F. Cichos, D. Rings, D. Chakraborty, K. Kroy, K. Günther, A. Henning-Knechtel, E. Sperling and M. Mertig, Hot Brownian motion and photophoretic self-propulsion, diffusion-fundamentals.org 2015, 23(1), 1-19.

10. A. Henning-Knechtel, F. Fischer and M. Mertig, Investigating the aggregation behaviour of DNA origami frames, Physica Status Solidi A 2015, 212(6), 1375-1381, doi: 10.1002/pssa.201431931

11. A. Henning, Einsatz von einzelsträngigen DNS-Templaten zur Erstellung funktioneller DNS-Nanostrukturen PhD Thesis, TU Dresden 2012, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-112695

12. O. I. Wilner, R. Orbach, A. Henning, C. Teller, O. Yehezkeli, M. Mertig, D. Harries and I. Willner, Self-assembly of DNA nanotubes with controllable diameters, Nature Communications 2011, 2, 540, doi: 10.1038/ncomms1535 Highlighted in German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)

13. R. Freeman, E. Sharon, C. Teller, A. Henning, Y. Tzfati and I. Willner, DNAzyme-like activity of hemin—telomeric G-quadruplexes for the optical analysis of telomerase and its inhibitors, ChemBioChem 2010, 11 (17), 2362-2367, doi: 10.1002/cbic.201000512 Cover picture of the issue

14. O. I. Wilner, A. Henning, B. Shlyahovsky and I. Willner, Covalently linked DNA nanotubes, Nano Letters 2010, 10 (4), 1458-1465, doi: 10.1021/nl100389v

15. S. Shimron, J. Elbaz, A. Henning and I. Willner, Ion-induced DNAzyme switches, Chemical Communications 2010, 46(19), 3250-3252, doi: 10.1039/B926003J Cover picture of the issue

16. A. Henning, F. F. Bier and R. Hölzel, Dielectrophoresis of DNA: Quantification by impedance measurements, Biomicrofluidics 2010, 4, 022803, doi: 10.1063/1.3430550

17. A. Henning, Self-assembly of nucleic acids into functional systems Master Thesis, Biotec TU Dresden 2009

18. A. Henning, J. Henkel, F. F. Bier and R. Hölzel, Label-free electrical quantification of the dielectrophoretic response of DNA, PMC Biophysics 2008; 1: 4, doi: 10.1186/1757-5036-1-4.