Daniel Kracher studied food and biotechnology at the BOKU University in Vienna, where he discovered his love for biochemistry during his studies. His research focused on enzymes enabling fungi to degrade biomass more efficiently - a process that is not yet fully understood.

After his PhD in Vienna and a postdoctoral stay in Manchester, he moved to the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBT), Graz University of Technology, where he is doing research as a University Assistant and is also involved in teaching.

His Young Researcher Group uses a combination of biochemistry and infection biology to understand the molecular basis of how certain enzymes enable pathogenic organisms to "hide" from the immune systems of animals, which allows pathogens to infect the host effectively. Together with the infection biologist Stefan Schild from the University of Graz, who will conduct the tests on the pathogen itself, Kracher wants to understand this phenomenon using the cholera pathogen. One research goal is to explore how these enzymes can be selectively deactivated to make the pathogen recognizable by the immune system at a very early stage. Importantly, the enzymes under investigation are not only found in the cholera pathogen but, among others, also in the plague- and Legionella pathogens.

Press release TU Graz: Enzyme research between cholera and targeted design
ResearchGate

Project funding

Funding: EUR 616,260