Natural Product Function and Engineering
Prof. Dr. Helge B. Bode
Research area
Interaction between organisms depends on metabolites as chemical cues acting as attractants, repellents or toxins. This is also true for microorganisms and because of the huge microbial diversity, which has been studied only to a very limited extend, also several of such "communication signals“ still await their identification.
In our lab, we aim at the understanding of microbial metabolite function in the environment using entomopathogenic nematodes and their associated bacteria as model systems. We additionally use our knowledge of the underlying biosynthetic pathways to manipulate them in detail and even generate new-to-nature microbial metabolites.
