Interfaculty Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine

VAAM PhD-Award 2021 for Dr. Moritz Koch

Dr. Moritz Koch (Working group Forchhammer) has received the VAAM PhD Award (Promotionspreis) 2021 www.vaam.de

Publication in Current Biology

The authors Sofia Doello, Markus Burkhardt and Karl Forchhammer published their pioneering findings about  "The essential role of sodium bioenergetics and ATP homeostasis in the developmental transitions of a cyanobacterium" in Current Biology (Doello et al., 2021, Current Biology 31, 1–10).


Iris Maldener and Khaled Selim are Guest Editors for Special Edition of "life"

"Cellular and Molecular Strategies in Cyanobacterial Survival

Dr. Iris Maldener and Dr. Khaled Selim are organizing and editing a Special Issue of the Journal Life titled „Cellular and Molecular Strategies in Cyanobacterial Survival“.

In recent years, our knowledge on cyanobacterial survival strategies has increased tremendously by applying global studies like transcriptomics and proteomics, as well as advanced microscopic technics. Protein structure and function analysis have revealed the great potential of cellular and metabolic adaptation mechanisms of single cells and multicellular filaments towards environmental stress, including cell differentiation, signal transduction, formation of reserve materials, and resuscitation from dormant states, just to name a few examples.

In this Special Issue of Life, we invite researchers from all over the world to share with us the advances in our understanding of ecological, cellular, and molecular mechanisms of cyanobacterial survival. This includes original work and review articles dealing with signaling pathways, strategies of gene and protein regulation, global studies, and new discoveries related to differentiation of spore like akinetes, motile hormogonia, and nitrogen-fixing heterocysts.

Manuscript submissions are possible until 31st of July 2020.

Detailed information can be found at the Special Issue homepage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/life/special_issues/CMSCS


Publication in Cell

Research from SFB766 group of Iris Maldener, Ann-Katrin Kieninger and Karl Forchhammer was published together with Martin Pilhofer and Gregor Weiss from ETH Zürich in July issue of Cell, (2019), Volume 178, 374–384, with the title: „Structure and Function of a Bacterial Gap Junction Analog“.

Read the Press Release from the University of Tübingen

Read the Paper


Publication in Nature Communications

The research of GRK member Klaus Brilisauer and co-authors Johanna Rapp, Pascal Rath, Anna Schöllhorn, Lisa Bleul, Elisabeth Weiß, Mark Stahl, Stephanie Grond & Karl Forchhammer, entitled 'Cyanobacterial antimetabolite 7-deoxy-sedoheptulose blocks the shikimate pathway to inhibit the growth of prototrophic organisms' has been published in February's Volume of Nature Communications.

Read the press release from the University of Tübingen

Read the article


AEM October Issue "Cover Story"

The paper published by Björn Watzer and Karl Forchhammer about "Cyanophycin Synthesis Optimizes Nitrogen Utilization in the Unicellular Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803" was selected as the Cover Picture and Article of Significant Interest in the Journal of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Read the article





You can find our recent publications here.

Collaborative Research Center SFB766

Graduiertenkolleg RTG1708