Research and Faculty

More than 35 research groups from the Centre for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and the Philipps-Universität Marburg participate in the Research School. They form the core for the interdisciplinary concept of the school, covering a wide range of microbiology research.

Brief descriptions of the scientific questions covered by each faculty member are available under the Research topics section. Full list of the IMPRS-Mic faculty members is found below, together with the links to their respective group websites. 

Cellular organisation & architecture:

• Bölker, Michael (Molecular biology of fungi)
• Diepold, Andreas (Bacterial secretion systems)
• Drescher, Knut (Bacterial biofilms)
• Graumann, Peter (Molecular and cellular biochemistry of microorganisms)
• Heider, Dominik (Bioinformatics and computational biology)
• Maier, Uwe (Cell biology of algae)
• Mösch, Hans-Ulrich (Fungal dimorphism)
• Murray, Seán (Mechanisms of spatial organisation)
• Randau, Lennart (Prokaryotic small RNA biology)
• Schindler, Daniel (Synthetic genomics and engineering biology MAXGenesys)
• Søgaard-Andersen, Lotte (Bacterial development & differentiation)
• Thanbichler, Martin (Prokaryotic cell biology)
• Waidner, Barbara (Biochemistry and cell biology of microorganisms)
• Yuan, Jing (Small Proteins in bacterial signaling networks)

Metabolism & physiology:

• Bange, Gert (Molecular physiology of microbes)
• Bode, Helge (Natural product function and engineering)
• Brune, Andreas (Insect gut microbiology and symbiosis)
• Erb, Tobias (Understanding and building metabolism)
• Essen, Lars-Oliver (Structural biology of photoreceptors and fungal cell wall proteins)
• Heider, Johann (Microbial metabolism of hydrocarbons)
• Hochberg, Georg (Evolutionary biochemistry)
• Höfer, Katharina (Bacterial epitrancriptomics)
• Lill, Roland (Cellular iron-sulfur protein biogenesis and iron regulation)
• Maier, Uwe (Cell biology of algae)
• Niederholtmeyer, Henrike (Cell-free synthetic biology)
• Paczia, Nicole (Metabolomics and small molecule MS)
• Randau, Lennart (Prokaryotic small RNA biology)
• Rebelein, Johannes (Microbial metalloenzymes)
• Schindler, Daniel (Synthetic genomics and engineering biology MAXGenesys)
• Schuller, Jan Michael (Cryo-EM of molecular machines)
• Shima, Seigo (Microbial protein structure)
• Vázquez, Olalla (Photoreactive probes for chemical biology)

Microbial communities & interaction:

• Becker, Anke (Bacterial regulatory networks)
• Bode, Helge (Natural product function and engineering)
• Brune, Andreas (Insect gut microbiology and symbiosis)
• Drescher, Knut (Bacterial biofilms)
• Erb, Tobias (Understanding and building metabolism)
• Junker, Robert (Evolutionary ecology of plants)
• Liesack, Werner (Methanotrophic bacteria, and environmental genomics/transcriptomics)
• Opitz, Sven (Symbiotic collectives)
• Schmeck, Bernd (Inflammation of the lung)
• Søgaard-Andersen, Lotte (Bacterial development & differentiation)
• Sourjik, Victor (Microbial networks)

Signal transduction & information processing:

• Bange, Gert (Molecular physiology of microbes)
• Bischofs-Pfeifer, Ilka (Complex adaptive traits)
• Bode, Helge (Natural product function and engineering)
• Bölker, Michael (Molecular biology of fungi)
• Colin, Rémy (Biophysics of environment sensing by motile microorganisms)
• Erb, Tobias (Understanding and building metabolism)
• Essen, Lars-Oliver (Structural biology of photoreceptors and fungal cell wall proteins)
• Heider, Johann (Microbial metabolism of hydrocarbons)
• Niederholtmeyer, Henrike (Cell-free synthetic biology)
• Søgaard-Andersen, Lotte (Bacterial development & differentiation)
• Sourjik, Victor (Microbial networks)
• Thanbichler, Martin (Prokaryotic cell biology)
• Yuan, Jing (Small Proteins in bacterial signaling networks)