Felix Randow’s research group investigates how individual human cells protect themselves against intracellular pathogens. Focussing on bacterial infections in barrier tissues, where cellular self-defence is of particular importance, his work has revealed novel principles of immunity in mammals.

Felix’s research group is interested in the ubiquitin system and how it marks invading bacteria as cargo for autophagy receptors. Recently, he discovered that the ubiquitin coat on cytosol-invading bacteria is generated by RNF213 through ubiquitylation of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which represents the first known instance of ubiquitylation targeting a non-proteinaceous substrate and reveals a potential link between arterial stenosis and infection in Moyamoya disease, for which RNF213 is a genetic risk factor (Otten, Nature 2021).