19.12.2018

Gene deletion increases bacterial virulence

Genes of the central carbon metabolism influence the virulence of the hospital germ P. aeruginosa.

In her master thesis, Alina Renz extended the recently published model of the widespread pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which often appears as a multi-drug resistant hospital germ. Using systematic computer simulation, she detected promising candidate genes whose absence was supposed to increase the virulence of the pathogen. In collaboration with the research group Schütz/Bohn at the Interfaculty Institute for Microbiology and Infection Biology independently conducted  wet-lab experiments, evidence for these predictions could be collected. This thesis made a significant contribution to the cooperation between computer simulation and experimental work.