photosynthetic microbes
Welcome to the website of the junior professorship of synthetic biology of photosynthetic organisms at the Matthias Schleiden Institute!
Our research focuses on developing and utilising synthetic biology principles to improve photosynthetic cell factories. Our interest is to advance photosynthetic host chassis as a sustainable alternative towards biotechnological applications. To achieve this, we are using metabolic and genetic engineering techniques as well as molecular biology and biochemical methods. We are mainly working with various different cyanobacteria and at occassion with eukaryotic algae. Apart from their plethora of proposed applications, we are also interested in unravelling fundamental cell biological processes (such as protein trafficking). Additionally, we want to gain more insights into the processing of environmental signals in co-cultures and communities of these organisms.
On this website you can find news and information about research and teaching in the group.
Information
The group recently moved internally, you can now find us at Philosophenweg 12 (just above the Botanical Garden). Please also direct all mail to the new address.
Please note that our X (Twitter) account ( @SynBioJazzExternal link) is not actively used anymore.
Group Activity January 2025
Image: DAR- 28. January 2025: today Dr. Arthur Guljamow (University of Potsdam) visited us here in Jena and gave a talk at our institute seminar. It was great to hear about so many different aspects of natural product research in cyanobacteria and discuss some science with him.
- 16. January 2025: It was about time to escape allday lab duties and do something social together with Plant Physiology! This time we tested our communal problem-solving skills in an Escape Room.
- 14. January 2025: Today we had Prof. Cheryl Kerfeld (Michigan State University, Lawrence National Berkeley Lab) visiting us. She came all the way from California to talk to us about her latest research on Bacterial Microcompartments. Thanks for visiting Jena and for a great science chat on BMCs and beyond.
- January 2025: We had a fresh headstart to the year with another new addition to the team: Carlos has joined us directly from the Philippines and our PhD student Sayali is back from her internship to finish up her PhD thesis. Welcome (back) to Jena!
Long Night of Science 2024 Booth AG Zedler and ChemBioSys
Image: JAZZ2024
- December 2024: Juliane has joined us to support the group as a team assistant. We are super happy to have you and look forward to boosting our productivity with your help!
- November 2024: It was great fun to participate in the Long Night of ScienceExternal link in Jena and showcase how pretty our cyanobacteria look under the microscope together with Sabine Arndt and ChembioSysExternal link at the Planetarium. We also had some crafting fun with pearls to make some cyano bracelets with the youngest generation of scientists. Thank you to everyone who was involved!
- October 2024: Term starts and the group is growing - welcome to our MSc thesis project student Nils and Sophie, who will support our work as a Hiwi!
- September 2024: There were many occasions for cake this month and a lot of changes in the group. Our master students Janine und Nolan finished their lab work and will now write their theses. Our Bachelor student Simon also finished his work and already handed in this thesis - congratulations! Furhtermore we have a new lab member - say hi to Rea, who joins us for her MSc thesis project!
Cake with Cyanobacteria Pattern baked by Simon
Image: MV
Participation at ICRC 2024 (Bielefeld)
Image: JAZZ- 25. September 2024: The EXCRETE Workflow Paper for Exoproteomics in Cyanobacteria has now been published in Communications BiologyExternal link Congratulations to the first authors David Russo und Denys Oliinyk!
- September 16th – 18th 2024: Next stop was Bielefeld for the 13th International Cebitec Research ConferenceExternal link. This was the first international conference our PhD student Chris participated in . He presented his project in a poster and Julie gave a talk on Sayali's recent findings on metabolic engineering of Synechocystis for pigment biosynthesis (watch out for the preprint!). Again - many familar faces and interesting insights into recent developments in the field of algal biotechnology. We will happily join again in 3 years time!
- 13. September 2024: The Boehringer Ingelheim FoundationExternal linkwill support our research for 2 years within an Exploration Grant - thanks a lot and we are already looking forward to kicking off the project!
Participation at EWBC 2024
Image: -- September 3rd – 6th 2024: This month we have been busy attending conferences! The first one was the "12th European Workshop on The Cell Bioloy of Cyanobacteria"External link in Sevilla. Our PhD student Sayali showcased her work on membrane integration of cytochrome P450s in cyanobateria in a poster presentation and Julie gave a talk on our nanofilament technology in cyanobacteria. A very nice conference with many familiar faces that will definitely need to new collaborations!
- At the same time, our Master student Janine was joining the MiCom 2024 conference in Jena showing the results of her Master thesis in a Poster presentation.
- July, 24th 2024: The book chapter on "Photosynthetic Proteins in Cyanobacteria: from Translocation to Assembly of Photosynthetic Complexes", which is part of the book Endosymbiotic Organelle AcquisitionExternal link (edited by Steven D. Schwartzbach, Peter G. Kroth and Miroslav Oborník) has now been published.
- July, 11th 2024: Today the group had good reason to celebrate! Alexandra Schirmacher successfully defended her PhD thesis with the title "Novel synthetic biology approaches for next-generation cyanobacterial cell factories". She is the first PhD graduate from the group (more to come!). Congratulations Alex and great that you will keep working with cyanobacteria!
Group Photo PhD Defense Alexandra Schirmacher
Image: AZ- July, 2nd 2024: Today we welcomed Prof. Daniel Ducat (Michigan State University) and our collaborators Dr. Bin Lai and coworkers (UFZ Leipzig) to our institute seminar. The guest lecture by Danny gave exicing news on carboxysomes and their role in central carbon metabolism. We had many great discussions and new ideas we will definitely follow up on. Thanks a lot for visiting Jena!
Group Photo Visit Danny Ducat in Jena
Image: Alexandra Furch
Conference Attendees 22. Mitteldeutsche Pflanzenphysiologietagung
Image: JAZZ- April 2024: This month, Simon is joining us. He will be completing his BSc thesis with us until the end of the summer. Welcome to the group!
- February, 23rd-24th 2024: This year we hosted the "22. Mitteldeutsche Pflanzenphysiologietagung" in Jena together with Alexandra Furch de (Plant Physiology). The whole lab actively participated with oral presentations, posters and as session chairs. We thank the many participants from Halle, Leipzig, Dresden and Jena for a great Meeting. We would also like to thank the German Society for Plant SciencesExternal link, Profillinie Life as well as BioLabTecExternal link for supporting this meeting. We are particularly proud of our MSc student Janine Keller, who won the poster prize. Congratulations! If you want to know more about the conference, you can take a look at the official conference reportExternal link on the DBG website.
-
Poster Prize Award Janine KellerCongratulations to our MSc student Janine Keller for winning the poster prize!
- January 2024: Thanks to Paul D'Agostino (TU Dresden) for being our guest at the institute seminar. His talk about his work on discovering and expressing cyanobacterial biosynthetic gene cluster was great!
Synthetic Biology of Photosynthetic Organisms
Philosophenweg 12
07743 Jena
Google Maps site planExternal link
Postal address:
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Matthias Schleiden Institute
Synthetic Biology of Photosynthetic Organisms
Philosophenweg 12
07743 Jena
Germany