Steven Bergink PhD

Steven Bergink received his MSc in Molecular Biology at the University of Groningen and his PhD at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. As a graduate student he studied the link between Nucleotide Excision Repair and the Ubiquitin Proteasome System under the supervision of Wim Vermeulen and Jan Hoeijmakers.

Following his graduation, he took a postdoctoral position in the lab of Stefan Jentsch in the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (Martinsried/Munich, Germany), and deciphered how the AAA-ATPase Cdc48/p97 untangles SUMOylated DNA repair proteins.

In late 2013 he became an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the UMCG. Here his work focusses on the relationship between genome instability and protein quality control. Sinds medio 2021 he started working at University College in Groningen.

• • All Publications: mepa page or pdf

  • Selected Publications:

  1. García-Huerta P, Troncoso-Escudero P, Wu D, Thiruvalluvan A, Cisternas-Olmedo M, Henríquez DR, Plate L, Chana-Cuevas P, Saquel C, Thielen P, Longo KA, Geddes BJ, Lederkremer GZ, Sharma N, Shenkman M, Naphade S, Sardi SP, Spichiger C, Richter HG, Court FA, Tshilenge KT, Ellerby LM, Wiseman RL, Gonzalez-Billault C, Bergink S, Vidal RL, Hetz C. Insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) protects against Huntington's disease through the extracellular disposal of protein aggregates. Acta Neuropathol. 2020 Jul 8. doi: 10.1007/s00401-020-02183-1.
  2. Serlidaki D, van Waarde MAWH, Rohland L, Wentink AS, Dekker SL, Kamphuis MJ, Boertien JM, Brunsting JF, Nillegoda NB, Bukau B, Mayer MP, Kampinga HH, Bergink S. Functional diversity between HSP70 paralogs caused by variable interactions with specific co-chaperones. J Biol Chem. 2020 May 22;295(21):7301-7316. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA119.012449. *corresponding author
  3. Thiruvalluvan A, Eduardo P. de Mattos EP, Brunsting JF, Bakels R, Serlidaki D, Barazzuol L, Conforti P, Fatima S, Koyuncu S, Cattaneo E, Vilchez D, Bergink S*, Boddeke EHWG*, Copray S*, Kampinga HH*. DNAJB6, a key factor in neuronal sensitivity to amyloidogenesis. Mol Cell 2020 Apr 16;78(2):346-358.e9. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.02.022. *senior author
  4. Meister-Broekema M, Freilich R, Jagadeesan C, Rauch JN, Bengoechea R, Motley WW, Kuiper EFE , Minoia M, Furtado GV, van Waarde MAWH, Bird SJ, Rebelo A, Zuchner S, Pytel P, Scherer SS, Morelli FF, Carra S, Weihl CC, Bergink S*, Gestwicki JE*, and Kampinga HH* Myopathy associated BAG3 mutations lead to protein aggregation by stalling Hsp70 networks. Nat commun 17;9(1)5342 (2018) doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-07718-5. *senior author
  5. Kuiper EFE, de Mattos EP, Jardim LB, Kampinga HH, and Bergink S. Chaperones in Polyglutamine Aggregation: Beyond the Q-Stretch. Front Neurosci 11, 145. (2017) doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00145. corresponding author
  6. Kakkar V, Månsson C, de Mattos EP, Bergink S, van der Zwaag M, van Waarde MAWH, Kloosterhuis NJ, Melki R, van Cruchten RTP, Al-Karadaghi S, Arosio P, Dobson CM, Knowles TPJ, Bates GP, van Deursen J, Linse S, van de Sluis B, Emanuelsson C, and Kampinga HH. The S/T-rich motif in the DNAJB6 chaperone delays polyglutamine aggregation and the onset of disease in a mouse model. Mol Cell 62, 272-283  (2016) doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2016.03.017.
  7. Kampinga HH, Bergink S. Heat shock proteins as potential targets for protective strategies in neurodegeneration. Lancet Neurol 15(7) 748-59 (2016) doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(16)00099-5.
  8. Bergink S, Ammon T, Kern M, Schermelleh L, Leonhardt H, and Jentsch S. Role of Cdc48 (p97) as a SUMO-targeted segregase curbing Rad51-Rad52 interaction. Nat Cell Biol 15, 526-532, (2013) doi: 10.1038/ncb2729.
  9. Bergink S and Jentsch S. Principles of ubiquitin and SUMO modifications in DNA repair. Nature 458, 461-467, (2009) doi: 10.1038/nature07963.
  10. Bergink S, Salomons FA, Hoogstraten D, Groothuis TA, de Waard H, Wu J, Yuan L, Citterio E, Houtsmuller AB, Neefjes J, Hoeijmakers JH, Vermeulen W, and Dantuma NP. DNA damage triggers nucleotide excision repair-dependent monoubiquitylation of histone H2A.  Genes Dev 20, 1343-1352, (2006)