Past seminars since 2016

A chromosome-encoded ParMR system that forms membrane-bound filaments regulating cell shape in Cyanobacteria

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium XI - 2024

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium X - 2024

Microbiology Seminar Series

Engineering of growth-coupled Escherichia coli biosensors

Doctoral thesis defense

Investigation of the evolution of intermediate filament-forming proteins in Eukaryotes

Doctoral thesis defense

Synthesis of novel non-ribosomal peptide synthetases

Doctoral thesis defense

The path and regulation of the type III secretion effector export

Doctoral thesis defense

Future network talks #22

Career Development and Networking Session

Graduate Students Mini Symposium IX-2024

Microbiology Seminar Series

Future Network Talks #21

Career Development and Networking Session

Exploring and engineering enzymes for new-to-nature photorespiration

Doctoral thesis defense

Role of diffusible signals secreted by macrophages in chemotaxis of Escherichia coli

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium - VIII - 2024

Microbiology Seminar Series

Emergent spatiotemporal structures in bacterial binary mixtures

Doctoral thesis defense

Revving up: The dynamics of bacterial flagellar stators

Microbiology Seminar Series
Cytochrome P450 enzymes are catalysts of unrivalled versatility, able to mediate over 60 different monooxygenation and other reactions, such as aromatic and aliphatic hydroxylation at unactivated C-H bonds, epoxidation of olefins and aromatic rings, heteroatom oxidation and dealkylation, C-C bond cleavage, ring rearrangements, isomerizations and reductions. This catalytic versatility has led to the exploitation of P450s across the biosphere, for diverse functions such as the mobilization of carbon sources, chemical communication (e.g. hormonal signalling), and inter-organismal chemical warfare, such as between plants and the herbivores that feed on them. They were pivotal for the transition from water to land by plants and animals and play central roles in natural product biosynthesis in microbes and secondary metabolism in plants. This versatility also makes them attractive for catalyzing industrially important reactions in pharmaceutical and other fine chemical syntheses. However, P450 enzymes from natural sources are limited by poor stability and the need for accessory enzymes and a reducing cofactor. Moreover, expression of P450s in recombinant systems typically requires rich media, all of which increases the cost of using P450s for industrial biocatalysis. We have used ancestral sequence reconstruction as a technique for both engineering P450s as biocatalysts and exploring their evolution. This presentation will look both backwards and forwards. Using examples drawn from reconstructions of plant, animal and microbial P450 families, I will discuss what we have learned about the natural evolution of these enzymes. Then, I will show how ancestral P450s can be used as cost-effective, modular bio-bricks for synthetic biology, to create biocatalytic systems powered by photosynthesis and nanobioreactors based on P450s in virus-like particles. Cytochrome P450 enzymes are catalysts of unrivalled versatility, able to mediate over 60 different monooxygenation and other reactions, such as aromatic and aliphatic hydroxylation at unactivated C-H bonds, epoxidation of olefins and aromatic rings, heteroatom oxidation and dealkylation, C-C bond cleavage, ring rearrangements, isomerizations and reductions. This catalytic versatility has led to the exploitation of P450s across the biosphere, for diverse functions such as the mobilization of carbon sources, chemical communication (e.g. hormonal signalling), and inter-organismal chemical warfare, such as between plants and the herbivores that feed on them. They were pivotal for the transition from water to land by plants and animals and play central roles in natural product biosynthesis in microbes and secondary metabolism in plants. This versatility also makes them attractive for catalyzing industrially important reactions in pharmaceutical and other fine chemical syntheses. However, P450 enzymes from natural sources are limited by poor stability and the need for accessory enzymes and a reducing cofactor. Moreover, expression of P450s in recombinant systems typically requires rich media, all of which increases the cost of using P450s for industrial biocatalysis. We have used ancestral sequence reconstruction as a technique for both engineering P450s as biocatalysts and exploring their evolution. This presentation will look both backwards and forwards. Using examples drawn from reconstructions of plant, animal and microbial P450 families, I will discuss what we have learned about the natural evolution of these enzymes. Then, I will show how ancestral P450s can be used as cost-effective, modular bio-bricks for synthetic biology, to create biocatalytic systems powered by photosynthesis and nanobioreactors based on P450s in virus-like particles. [more]

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VII - 2024

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Elucidate the mechanism of PhoQ inhibition by the small protein MgrB

Doctoral thesis defense

The effect of tRNA structure and codon context on translation efficiency and fidelity

Microbiology Seminar Series

Ask the ancestors: resurrecting and re-evolving the bacterial flagellar motor

Guest Speaker Talk

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VI - 2024

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Introduction to mass spectrometry-based proteomics

Workshop

Scientific Illustration and Adobe Illustrator

Workshop

Future Network Talks #20

Career Development and Networking Session

Graduate Students Mini Symposium V-2024

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

IMPRS Selection Symposium

Special Event

Steinernema nematodes as an emerging genetic model to study microbial symbiosis

Microbiology Seminar Series

Development and characterization of new tools for advanced SMLM imaging schemes

Doctoral thesis defense

New players in FtsZ-based cell division in Archaea

Microbiology Seminar Series

Efficient information usage by cells – and cell biologists

Guest Speaker Talk

Future Network Talks #19

Career Development and Networking Session

Biosyntheses of natural products from Proteobacteria

Doctoral thesis defense

Bacteriophages reinvented: tiny killers, life savers and detectives

Microbiology Seminar Series

A beginner's guide to maximum-likelihood phylogenetics

Workshop

Graduate Students Mini Symposium IV-2024

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Cell-physiology experiments in fluctuating micro-environments

Workshop

The type VI secretion systems of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Microbiology Seminar Series

RNA Biochemistry

Workshop

Future Network Talks #18

Career Development and Networking Session

Scientific writing: Turning the blank page into a manuscript

Workshop

Uncovering transcriptional heterogeneity during Vibrio cholerae biofilm development

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium III-2024

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Workshop: Job Searching Strategy 2023 & Unlock the Full Potential of Your Resume

Workshop

Genetic circuits on single DNA molecules, with and without cell-like compartments

Microbiology Seminar Series

Future Network Talks #17

Career Development and Networking Session

Graduate Students Mini Symposium II-2024

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Synthetic membranes, synthetic cells: Exploring the new frontier of cell engineering with polymers

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium I-2024

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Future Network Talks #16

Career Development and Networking Session

Establishment of a microfluidic setup to characterize whole cell biosensors for bacteriocin detection

Guest Speaker Talk

Evolution of essential complexity in Rubisco

Doctoral thesis defense

Mechanisms of spatial organisation within bacterial cells

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium XI-2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Future Network Talks #15

Career Development and Networking Session

Genetic and non-genetic solutions to survive a lethal metabolic stress in Methylobacterium extorquens

Microbiology Seminar Series

Role of SPFH proteins in aerobic respiration of Escherichia coli

Doctoral thesis defense

Insights into assembly of the type IVa pilus machine in Myxococcus xanthus

Doctoral thesis defense

Why is E. coli's brain tuned so close to criticality?

Microbiology Seminar Series

Future Network Talks #14

Career Development and Networking Session

Graduate Students Mini Symposium X-2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Evolution of molecular innovations in cyanobacterial light-perceiving systems

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium IX-2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Engineering yeast for methanol-based biomanufacturing

Methanol is an ideal feedstock for bio-manufacturing that can be beneficial for global carbon neutrality. However, the toxicity of methanol limits the efficiency of methanol metabolism toward biochemical production, and it is still challenging in engineering this non-conventional yeast due to serious lack of genetic editing tools. In this presentation, we will show our recent progress in establishing CRISPR-Cas9 based genome editing tools and enhancing the homologous recombination in methylotrophic yeast Ogataea polymorpha. With this genetic platform, we tried to engineer cellular metabolism for fatty acid production from methanol. We found that engineering overproduction of free fatty acids (FFA) from sole methanol resulted cell death with a decreased cellular phospholipid in O. polymorpha, and the cell growth was restored by adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE). Whole genome sequencing of the adapted strains reveals that inactivation of LPL1 (encoding a putative lipase) and IZH3 (encoding a membrane protein related to zinc metabolism) preserve cell survival by restoring phospholipid metabolism. Engineering the pentose phosphate pathway and gluconeogenesis enabled high-level production of FFA (15.9 g/L) from sole methanol. Preventing methanol-associated toxicity underscored the link between lipid metabolism and methanol tolerance, which should contribute to enhancing methanol-based bio-manufacturing. [more]

The evolution of the molecular toolkit for pluripotent stem cells

We use native and re-designed versions of SOX and OCT transcription factors to reprogram somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells and for stem cell engineering. In mammals, what distinguishes paralogous SOX factors is their ability to dimerize with OCT4 on distinctive composite DNA elements to induce stemness (SOX2) or specify the germline (SOX17). The selective partnership of these two SOX factors with OCT4 is primarily directed by a single amino acid conserved across animals. Mutating this amino acid converts SOX17 into an enhanced 'super SOX2', termed eSOX17, which speeds up pluripotency induction. In human cells, eSOX17 enables the direct conversion of somatic cells into totipotent cells. In two-factor cocktails, eSOX17 can transdifferentiate human blood into induced brain stem cells, avoiding the rejuvenation associated with pluripotency induction. Inspired by the close partnership between SOX/OCT and the potential of re-engineered variants for cellular reprogramming, we have begun to study their evolutionary history. Until now, SOX and OCT factors have been believed to be unique to animals. Surprisingly, we identified these factors in certain lineages of unicellular holozoans and found that they can replace SOX2 to induce pluripotency in mice. It is possible that the emergence of the molecular toolkit essential for mammalian pluripotency predates the evolution of multicellularity. [more]

A mechanistic understanding of bacterial chromosome organisation

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VIII - 2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Evolution of evolvability: adaptive hyper mutability by lineage selection

Microbiology Seminar Series

The intricate machinery of the bacterial flagellar motor and its regulation

Guest Speaker Talk
The bacterial flagellar motor is a membrane-embedded rotary macromolecular machine that converts the electrochemical energy of the proton gradient into the mechanical energy of rotation. The knowledge about the bacterial motor is a source of inspiration for nanotechnology and one of the first steps towards making artificial motors on the same scale. Recent breakthrough electron cryotomography studies have revealed proteinaceous periplasmic structures adjacent to the stator (the powerhouse) of polar flagellar motors, which are essential for the stator assembly and function. The talk will showcase the cutting-edge research on the structure, composition, and function of the periplasmic scaffold in the polar bacterial flagellar motor of Helicobacter pylori. This microorganism displays high motility in the very viscous mucous layer of the stomach, which enables us to use H. pylori as a model system to study the polar motor specialised for locomotion in highly viscous fluids. The presented work will illustrate the advantages of an interdisciplinary approach combining biology and physics. The presentation will conclude with the discussion of the new paradigm for how the previously unseen accessory components control the function of the flagellar motor. [more]

Game of Tug-of-war: ParA2 oscillations spatially regulates Vibrio cholerae chromosome 2 segregation

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VII - 2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria: Mechanism for coexist of oxygen-sensitive enzymes and oxygenic photosynthesis

Guest Speaker Talk

Towards the extension of the substrate spectrum of the [Fe]-hydrogenase Hmd

Doctoral thesis defense

Hydride intermediates in the catalytic turnover of gas-processing metalloenzymes from diverse microorganisms

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VI - 2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

A metabolic portrait of the developing bacterial endospore

Microbiology Seminar Series

Characterization of Type IV-A CRISPR-Cas systems

Doctoral thesis defense

More is Different: Membrane Protein Function as a Collective Phenomenon

Microbiology Seminar Series

Engineering enzymes and pathways for alternative CO2 fixation and glyoxylate assimilation

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium V - 2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Non-canonical molecular biology of bacteriophages

Microbiology Seminar Series

Roots and bacteria: Basis of attraction

Microbiology Seminar Series

Evolution of evolvability: adaptive hyper mutability by lineage selection

Microbiology Seminar Series

Design and directed evolution of artificial lanthanide enzymes

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium IV-2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Structure and function of non-cysteinyl coordinated Fe/S proteins

Microbiology Seminar Series

Determinants and evolution of metabolic interactions in synthetic microbial communities

Doctoral thesis defense

Investigating the kinetochore complex in Schizosaccharomyces pombe using advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques

Doctoral thesis defense

Protein transport in bacteria: multiple pathways and common concepts

Microbiology Seminar Series

Enzymatic systems for synthetic formate assimilation

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium III-2023

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

The impact of differential temperatures (30°C versus 45°C) on the methanogenic community in Philippine rice field soil

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium II 2023

Microbiology Seminar Series

Pattern formation and dynamics in bacterial cells

Doctoral thesis defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium I 2023

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VIII

Microbiology Seminar Series

Decoupling of growth and overproduction of chemicals in Escherichia coli

Doctoral thesis defense

Protein diffusion in the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli

Doctoral thesis defense

b-NAD as a Building Block in Natural Product Biosynthesis

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium VII 2022

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

The diverse functions and mechanisms of prokaryotic Argonaute proteins

Microbiology Seminar Series

Coevolution in the termite-protist symbiosis

Microbiology Seminar Series

Diversity, function and oxygen relationship of free-living and flagellate-associated Opitutales (phylum Verrucomicrobiota) in termite gut

PhD Defense

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium VI 2022

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Partners in slime: How mucus regulates microbial virulence

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium V 2022

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium IV 2022

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Microbial determinants of folivory in beetles

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium III 2022

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

How to catch a nematode if you were a mushroom

Microbiology Seminar Series

The predation strategy of Myxococcus xanthus

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium II 2022

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

New central carbon metabolic pathways in Alphaproteobacteria: from natural to synthetic metabolism

PhD Defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium I 2022

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium

Integrative analysis and genome engineering of the near-minimal bacterium Mesoplasma florum

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini-Symposium VII 2021

Transmission modes in two-component systems

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VI 2021

Phylogenomics and the early evolution of Bacteria

Microbiology Seminar Series

Mapping interactions between metabolites and transcriptional regulators at a genome-scale

PhD Defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium V 2021

High-Andean Microbial Ecosystems: From Lakes to photoreceptors

Microbiology Seminar Series

A 50-years old mechanistic mystery resolved - an exploration of the enzyme reaction mechanism of 3-ketosteroid delta1-dehydrogenase by experimental and theoretical techniques

Microbiology Seminar Series

Bacterial Danger-Sensing Protects Against Bacteriophage Predation

PhD Defense

Mechanisms for chromosome folding and segregation in Bacillus subtilis

SFB/Transregio TRR 174

Small but effective! Newly identified players in nitrogen regulation in Methanosarcina mazei

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium IV 2021

A biophysical approach to RNA transcription

Microbiology Seminar Series

The proton motive force determines Escherichia coli’s robustness to extracellular pH

Microbiology Seminar Series

Molecular function and regulation of the bacterial injectisome

PhD Defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium III 2021

Income tax seminar for international scholars

Special seminar

Cell-free systems for on-demand biomanufacturing, molecular sensing, and education

Microbiology Seminar Series

Evolution of high torque flagellar motors and coevolution of cell plan in the Campylobacterota

Microbiology Seminar Series

At the crossroads of bacterial signaling and RNA degradation

Microbiology Seminar Series

IMPRS Selection Symposium

Feeling the pinch: New insights into regulation of the E. coli divisome

SFB/Transregio TRR 174

Graduate Students Mini Symposium II 2021

Characterization of type III secretion system-dependent protein secretion in Y. enterocolitica

PhD Defense

Introduction of the Max Planck Research Group: Bacterial Epitranscriptomics

Microbiology Seminar Series

How to kill your rivals: microbial warfare mediated by the Type VI secretion system of Serratia marcescens

Microbiology Seminar Series

Deregulation of the Clp protease by ADEP antibiotics - recent news

SFB/Transregio TRR 174

Image Segmentation of Bacterial Cells in Biofilms

PhD Defense

Fitness effects of horizontal gene transfer

Microbiology Seminar Series

Dynamics, Feedback, and Transient Antibiotic Resistance in Single Cells

Microbiology Seminar Series

Graduate Students Mini Symposium I 2021

Architecture, spatial metabolism and stress response of bacterial biofilms

PhD Defense

Structural Proteomics of the Fungal Cell Wall

PhD Defense

Teaching an old dog new trick - engineering E. coli for new-to-nature metabolism

Microbiology Seminar Series

Biochemical Characterization of the Phoslactomycin modular Polyketidesynthase

PhD Defense

New mechanisms controlling the positioning and activity of the ParABS chromosome partition system

PhD Defense

How FtsZ forms a ring - the emergence of large-scale order from local interactions between treadmilling filaments

SFB/Transregio TRR 174

Force required for endocytic vesicle formation analyzed by FRET-based force sensors

PhD Defense

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VIII 2020

Expanding the repertoire of enzymatic C‑C bond formation with one-carbon units

PhD Defense

Synthetic bacterial communities to probe microbial community functions

Microbiology Seminar Series

Building a light driven synthetic carbon dioxide fixation cycle within microdroplets

PhD Defense

Determinants of bacterial cell shape and size

SFB/Transregio TRR 174

Graduate Students Mini Symposium VII 2020

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SFB/Transregio TRR 174

Establishment and maintenance of cell polarity in Myxococcus xanthus

PhD Defense

Tapping cyanobacteria for sugar: increasing photosynthetic potential and engineering solar-driven microbial consortia for bioproduction

Microbiology Seminar Series

Transcriptional regulation of Escherichia coli metabolism and engineered metabolic pathways

PhD Defense

Role of chemotaxis, cyclic-di-GMP and type 1 fimbriae in Escherichia coli surface attachment

PhD Defense

Understanding metabolic robustness of Escherichia coli using genetic and environmental perturbations

PhD Defense

From stress to success: how actinobacteria exploit life without a cell wall

SFB/Transregio TRR 174

Implementation of CO2 fixation pathways into Methylorubrum extorquens AM1

PhD Defense

Realization of a New-to-Nature Carboxylation Pathway

PhD Defense
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