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Klaus Michael Hahn is an American scientist and educator, recognized for his work developing methods to study molecular behavior inside living cells, especially fluorescent biosensors, optogenetics and chemogenetics.

Education and academic career

Hahn earned his B.S in biochemistry and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Virginia. After postdoctoral training at Carnegie Mellon University and the Scripps Research Institute, he became an associate professor at Scripps in the Cell Biology Department. He is currently the Ronald Thurman Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was co-founder of the Olympus Imaging Center at UNC, and served on advisory boards for the National Cancer Institute’s Frederick National Laboratory, national funding agencies, and NIH imaging centers.

Awards and recognition

Hahn is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was awarded a Transformative R01 Award and the James Shannon Director’s Award from the National Institutes of Health. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology named his work on fluorescent biosensors one of the “ten breakthroughs of the decade”. In 2019 he was awarded the Pearse Prize of the Royal Microscopy Society.

Notable lectures: Pearse Prize Lecture, Royal Microscopy Society, 2019; ABRF national meeting, 2016; Leica Scientific Forum France 2012; Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2010; International Conference of Systems Biology 2009; Annual Meeting of the Japanese Biochemical Society 2003

Research

Hahn has spent his career in academic research and education. He initially developed fluorescent biosensors, molecules that report on control mechanisms within living cells. He and his colleagues pioneered early biosensor designs, including the use of fluorescence resonance energy transfer and environment-sensing dyes. His laboratory has extended biosensor imaging to study conformational changes of single molecules inside living cells. These studies revealed how localized, transient protein activation events, especially of small GTPases, generate cell movement.

More recently, the Hahn lab focused on precisely controlling specific cell components within cells and animals. They showed how proteins can be engineered to respond to light or small molecules, using a variety of generalizable techniques. This was especially valuable for the broad range of proteins that, unlike rhodopsins and channel proteins used earlier, had not evolved to respond to light. By inserting engineered domains into specific cell constituents, they and their collaborators elucidated mechanisms of memory, immune function, cell motility and others.

References

1. ^ "NIH Biographical Sketch for Klaus Hahn" (PDF). Department of Pharmacology, UNC School of Medicine. 2022-05-13. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
2. ^ "Klaus M. Hahn, PhD". Department of Pharmacology, UNC School of Medicine. 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
3. "UNC-Olympus Research Imaging Center". UNC School of Medicine UNC-Olympus Research Imaging Center. 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
4. "Elected Fellows". AAAS - American Association for the Advancement of Science. 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
5. "NIH Director's Transformative Research Award Recipients - 2009 Awardees". NIH - National Institutes of Health. 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
6. "UNC scientists garner new NIH awards for high risk, transformative research". EurekAlert! | AAAS. 2009-09-24. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
7. "Quantitative Imaging of Signaling Networks". National Institutes of Health (NIH) RePORTER. 2022-05-13. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
8. "FLUORESCENT INDICATORS OF RHO AND RAN NUCLEOTIDE STATE". National Institutes of Health (NIH) RePORTER. 2022-05-13. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
9. "From the Editors". Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. 11 (10): 675. 2010-09-23. doi:10.1038/nrm2986 – via Springer Nature.
10. Wrighton, Katherine H. (2010-09-23). "Sensing and controlling protein dynamics". Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. 11 (10): 681. doi:10.1038/nrm2985 – via Springer Nature.
11. ^ "The Pearse Prize". www.rms.org.uk. Royal Microscopy Society. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
12. "Innovative Topics". ABRF 2016 Annual Meeting: Innovative Technologies Accelerating Discoveries. 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
13. ^ Kraynov, V. S., C. E. Chamberlain, G. M. Bokoch, M. A. Schwartz, S. Slabaugh and K.M. Hahn. Localized Rac Activation Dynamics Visualized in Living Cells. Science, 290:333-337, 2000.
14. ^ Pertz, O., Hodgson, L., Klemke, R., and Hahn, K.M. Spatio-temporal dynamics of RhoA activity in migrating cells. Nature, 440:1069-1072, 2006.
15. Toutchkine, A., Kraynov, V. and Hahn, K.M. Solvent-sensitive dyes to report protein conformational changes in living cells. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 125: 4132-4145, 2003.
16. ^ Nalbant, P., L. Hodgson, V. Kraynov, A. Toutchkine, K. M. Hahn. Activation of Endogenous Cdc42 Visualized in Living Cells. Science, 305:1615-1619, 2004.
17. ^ Machacek, M., Hodson, L., Welch, C., Elliot, H., Pertz, O., Nalbant, P., Abell, A., Johnson, G., Hahn, K.M.* and Danuser, G.* Coordination of Rho GTPase activities during cell protrusion. Nature, 461: 99-103, 2009. PMC2885353
18. Liu, B., Stone, O.J., Pablo, M., Herron, C.J., Nogueira, A.T., Dagliyan, O., Grimm, J.B., Lavis, L.D., Elston, T.C., and Hahn, K.M. Biosensors based on peptide exposure show single molecule conformations in live cells. Cell, 184(22): 5670-5685, 2021. PMC8556369
19. Marston, D.J., Vilela, M., Huh, J., Ren, J., Azoitei, M., Glekas, G., Danuser, G., Sondek, J., and Hahn, K.M. Multiplexed GTPase and GEF biosensor imaging enables network connectivity analysis. Nature Chem. Biol., 16(8): 826-833, 2020. PMC7388658
20. ^ Wu, Y, Frey, D., Lungu, O. I., Jaehrig, A., Schlichting, I., Kuhlman, B. and Hahn, K.M. Genetically-encoded photoactivatable Rac reveals spatiotemporal coordination of Rac and Rho during cell motility. Nature, 461: 104-110, 2009. PMC2766670
21. ^ Wang, H., Vilela, M., Winkler, A., Tarnawski, T., Schlichting, I., Yumerefendi, H., Kuhlman, B., Liu, R., Danuser, G., and Hahn, K.M. LOVTRAP, An Optogenetic System for Photo-induced Protein Dissociation. Nature Methods, 13(9): 755-8, 2016. PMC5137947
22. ^ Dagliyan, O., Tarnawski, M., Chu, P-H., Shirvanyants, D., Schlichting, I., Dokholyan, N.V., and Hahn, K.M. Engineering extrinsic disorder to control protein activity in living cells. Science. 354(6318):1441-1444, 2016. PMC5362825
23. ^ Stone, O.J., Pankow, N., Liu, B., Sharma, V.P., Eddy, R.J., Wang, H., Putz, A.T., Teets, F.D., Kuhlman, B., *Condeelis, J.S., and *Hahn, K.M. Optogenetic control of Cofilin and aTAT in living cells using Z-lock. Nature Chem. Biol., 15: 1183-1190, 2019. PMC6873228
24. ^ Dagliyan, O., Tarnawski, M., Chu, P-H., Shirvanyants, D., Schlichting, I., *Dokholyan, N.V. and *Hahn, K.M. Engineering extrinsic disorder to control protein activity in living cells. Science, 354: 1441-1444, 2016. PMC5362825
25. Karginov, A., Ding, F., Kota, P., Dokholyan, N.V., and Hahn, K.M. Engineered allosteric activation of kinases in living cells. Nature Biotech., 28(7): 743-7, 2010. PMC2902629
26. ^ Dagliyan, O., Shirvanyants, D., Karginov, A.V., Ding, F., Fee, L., Chandrasekaran, S.N., Freisinger, C.M., Smolen, G.A., Huttenlocher, A., *Hahn, K.M. and *Dokholyan, N.V. Rational design of a ligand-controlled protein conformational switch. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 110(17): 6800-6804, 2013. PMC3637791
27. ^ Karginov, A., Tsygankov, D., Berginski, M., Chu, P-H., Trudeau, E., Yi, J.J., Gomez, Shawn, Elston, T.C. and Hahn, K.M. Dissecting motility signaling through activation of specific Src-effector complexes. Nat. Chem. Bio. 10(4):286-90, 2014. PMC4064790
28. Hayashi-Takagi, A., Yagishita, S., Nakamura, M., Shirai, F., Wu, Y.I., Loshbaugh, A.L., Kuhlman, B., Hahn, K.M., and Kasai, H. Labelling and optical erasure of synaptic memory traces in the motor cortex. Nature 525:333-338, 2015. PMC4634641.
29. Yoo, S.K., Deng, Q., Cavnar, P.J., Wu,Y.I., Hahn, K.M. and Huttenlocher, A. Differential regulation of protrusion and polarity by PI(3)K during neutrophil motility in live zebrafish. Dev. Cell, 18: 226-236, 2010. PMC2824622
30. Koivusalo, M., Welch, C., Hayashi, H., Scott, C.C., Kim, M., Alexander, T., Touret, N., Hahn, K.M. and Grinstein, S. Amiloride inhibits macropinocytosis by lowering submembranous pH and preventing Rac1 and Cdc42 signalling. J. Cell Biol., 188: 547-563, 2010. PMC2828922
31. Wang, X., He, L., Wu, Y., Hahn, K.M. and Montell, D. Light-mediated activation reveals a key role for Rac in collective guidance of cell movement in vivo. Nature Cell Biol., 12(6): 591-597, 2010. PMC2929827

• Living people
• University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences alumni
• University of Virginia alumni
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty
• American biochemists
• Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science