Team
Head of the department
Research interests: Ecology and evolution of metabolite cross-feeding among microorganisms. Genomic and physiological consequences of a synergistic coevolution. Contact-dependent interactions among bacterial cells. Ecological and evolutionary dynamics within microbial interaction networks. Bacterial multicellularity.
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Department Assistant
Post-Docs
Research interests: Theoretical Biology. Evolution and maintenance of cooperative interactions. Evolution of biological networks. Coevolutionary dynamics within microbial communities.
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PhD students
MSc. Linéa Muhsal
Research interests: Coevolutionary dynamics within microbial communities. Genomic and physiological consequences of a synergistic coevolution. Contact-dependent interactions among bacterial cells. Bacterial multicellularity.
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Research interests: Impact of relatedness on cooperation.
Evolution of ecological interactions in different species. |
Research interests: Emergence, development and regulatory mechanisms of bacterial interaction within artificial and natural metabolic networks. With reference to involved membrane structures of the nanotubes.
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Research interests: Metabolic interdependencies within soil dwelling bacteria. Evolution and maintenance of cooperative interactions. Coevolutionary dynamics within soil microbial communities.
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M.Tech. Swagatika Dash
Research interests: Impact of biotic interactions on the establishment of soil bacterial communities: interplay between synergism and antagonism. Phenotypic heterogeneity within isogenic bacterial populations: causes and functional benefits.
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MSc. Shryli Kedambadi Shreekar
Research interests: Evolutionary ecology. Co-existance and cross-feeding in bacterial communities. Metabolite exchange and cost in cross-feeding networks. Molecular cues and signaling within bacterial interactions.
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M.Sc. Anjana Prasad
Research interests: Metabolic cross-feeding interactions - establishment, regulatory drivers, molecular mechanisms and metabolic trade-offs among bacterial communities.
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Technical assistants & Staff
Diplom.-Biol. Antje Moehlmeyer
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Technical Assistant Björn Reiling
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Technical Assistant Saskia Schuback
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Master Students
B.Sc. Lefkothea Karamani
Research interests: Exploration of horizontally and vertically transmitted mutualisms, with a specific focus on how these different transmission modes influence the fitness outcomes within mutualistic associations. Analysis of evolutionary dynamics and stability of these mutualistic systems under varying environmental pressures and transmission conditions.
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B.Sc. Michelle Pohlmann
Research interests: Investigating the Role of Motility in Facilitating Cross-Feeding Interactions Between Auxotrophic and Prototrophic Bacteria.
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Bachelor Students
B.Sc. candidate Juliana Averdiek
Research interests: Investigation of bacterial adhesion in correspondence to gene loss (amino acid auxotrophy), focusing on proteome comparisons and possible differential surface protein expression.
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B.Sc. candidate Lukas Thomalla
Research interests: Determination of proteomic differences between auxotrophic and prototrophic, food deprived bacteria across the phylogenetic tree.
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B.Sc. candidate Elias Schütte
Research interests: Emergence, development and regulatory mechanisms of bacterial interaction within artificial and natural metabolic networks.
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B.Sc. candidate Tomke Swyter
Research interests: Coevolutionary dynamics of auxotrophic bacteria and contact-dependent interactions among bacterial cells. Specifically with bacteria that have a mutation in the pros gene.
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Past Members (Alumni)
Technical assistants
Eva Limpinsel (2016-2017)
Bianca Altmann (2017-2018)
Marita Hermann (2018-2020)
Postdoctoral students
Dr. rer. nat. Chong Becker (2017)
Dr. Piyali Pal Chowdhury (2016-2020)
Master students
MSc. Muhammad Atiqur Rahman (2016)
Nadja Raifarth (2018)
Iqra Rafik Kasu (2019)
Benedikt Pauli (2019)
Pascal Brameier-Weuda (2019)
Jan-Paul Fischer (2020)
Thomas Schulzendorf (2021)
Jenna Boy (2023)
Andreas Messer (2023)
Michael Itermann (2023)
Nadja Raifarth (2018)
Iqra Rafik Kasu (2019)
Benedikt Pauli (2019)
Pascal Brameier-Weuda (2019)
Jan-Paul Fischer (2020)
Thomas Schulzendorf (2021)
Jenna Boy (2023)
Andreas Messer (2023)
Michael Itermann (2023)
Bachelor students
Ramya Ganesan (2016)
Ananya Nidamangala Srinivasa (2018)
Caroline Rolfes (2018)
Franziska Theising (2019)
Alexander Pfaff (2019)
Anna Milchin (2020)
Neele Avermann (2020)
Wyn Pflug (2021)
Anna-Lena Otto (2021)
Lefkothea Karamani (2022)
Brian Gaertner (2023)
Nikolas Westerwiede Barros (2023)
Antonia Casto (2023)
Internship students
Ramya Ganesan (2017)
Iqra Rafik Kasu (2019)
Aditi Shekhar (2021)
Iqra Rafik Kasu (2019)
Aditi Shekhar (2021)
Doctoral students
Dr. Samay Pande PhD Thesis: "Ecological mechanisms that stabilize cooperative cross-feeding interactions in bacteria" (2010-2014)
Now at ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Now at ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Dr. Glen D'Souza PhD Thesis: "The evolution of metabolic dependency in bacteria" (2011-2016)
Now at ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Now at ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Dr. Silvio Waschina PhD Thesis: "Evolutionary systems biology of bacterial metabolic adaptation" (2012-2016)
Now at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany
Now at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany
Dr. Shraddha Shitut PhD Thesis: "Mechanistic and metabolic basis of bacterial cross-feeding" (2013-2017)
Now at the Institute of Biology in Leiden, The Netherlands
Now at the Institute of Biology in Leiden, The Netherlands
Dr. Daniel Preußger PhD Thesis: "The evolution of metabolic cooperation in bacterial communities – causes and consequences" (2013-2020) Now at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute in Jena, Germany
Dr. Anne-Kathrin Dietel PhD Thesis: "Identifying the molecular causes for the commonly observed AT-bias in endosymbiont genomes" (2013-2020)
Dr. Samir Giri PhD Thesis: "Ecological and evolutionary drivers of metabolic cross-feeding" (2015-2021)
Now at EMBL in Heidelberg working with Typas Nassos.
Now at EMBL in Heidelberg working with Typas Nassos.
Dr. André Bogdanowski PhD Thesis: "Individual-based modeling of microbial systems under consideration of consumer-resource interactions and evolution" (2018-2022)
Dr. Ghada Yousif PhD Thesis: "Ecology of metabolite cross-feeding in soil bacterial communities" (2015-2023)
Dr. Shiksha Ajmera PhD Thesis: "Transitions in metabolic cross-feeding" (2018-2024)