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. ​
Department Assistant
Senior Research Fellow
Dr. rer. nat. Leonardo Oña (Group leader)
leobubach (at) uni-osnabrueck.de                                      
​​+49 (0) 541 969-2829
Research interests: Theoretical Biology. Evolution and maintenance of cooperative interactions. Evolution of biological networks. Coevolutionary dynamics within microbial communities.
Research  Assistant
Dr. rer. nat. Linéa Muhsal
linea.muhsal (at) uni-osnabrueck.de                                      
​​+49 (0) 541 969-2854
Research interests: Ecology and evolution of metabolite cross-feeding among microorganisms. Genomic and physiological consequences of a synergistic coevolution. Bacterial multicellularity.
PhD students
MSc. Saskia Wilmsen
saskia.wilmsen (at) uni-osnabrueck.de     
​+49 (0) 541 969-3101                                                         
Research interests: Impact of relatedness on cooperation.     
Evolution of ecological interactions in different species.    ​
MSc. Benedikt Pauli
benedikt.pauli (at) uni-osnabrueck.de     
​+49 (0) 541 969-2255                                                         
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.    ​
MSc. Sharvari Harshe
sharshe (at) uni-osnabrueck.de     
​+49 (0) 541 969-7141                                                        
Research interests: Metabolic interdependencies within soil dwelling bacteria. Evolution and maintenance of cooperative interactions. Coevolutionary dynamics within soil microbial communities.
M.Tech. Swagatika Dash
sdash(at) uni-osnabrueck.de   
​+49 (0) 541 969-7141                                                        
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.
MSc. Shryli Kedambadi Shreekar
sshreekar(at) uni-osnabrueck.de   
​+49 (0) 541 969-3101                                                        
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.
M.Sc. Anjana Prasad
aprasad(at) uni-osnabrueck.de   
​+49 (0) 541 969-3101                                                         
Research interests: Metabolic cross-feeding interactions - establishment, regulatory drivers, molecular mechanisms and metabolic trade-offs among bacterial communities.
M.Sc. Shubharthi Pal
spal(at) uni-osnabrueck.de   
​+49 (0) 541 969-3101                                                         
Research interests: Evolution of altruistic suicide in multicellular clusters of bacteria- causes and consequences.
M.Sc. Priyanka Mondal
pmondal(at) uni-osnabrueck.de   
​+49 (0) 541 969-2255                                                         
Research interests: Unraveling the eco-evolutionary  dynamics of synergistic interactions and the genomic consequences of synergistic coevolution.
Technical assistants & Staff
Diplom.-Biol. Antje Moehlmeyer
antje.moehlmeyer (at) uni-osnabrueck.de                                                   
​+49 (0) 541 969-2835
Technical Assistant Susana Pereira
susana.pereira(at)uni-osnabrueck.de                                                   
​+49 (0) 541 969-2255
Technical Assistant Saskia Schuback
saskia.schuback (at) uni-osnabrueck.de                                                   
​+49 (0) 541 969-2835
Master Students
B.Sc. Michelle Pohlmann
 mipohlmann (at) uni-osnabrueck.de                                                       
​ ​+49 (0) 541 969-7141
Research interests: Investigating the Role of Motility in Facilitating Cross-Feeding Interactions Between Auxotrophic and Prototrophic Bacteria.
Bachelor Students
 B.Sc. candidate Sophia Siebe
ssiebe (at) uni-osnabrueck.de                                                    
​ +49 (0) 541 969-3101
Research interests: Does complex carbon sources influence crossfeeding?
 B.Sc. candidate Paula Bongers
 pbongers(at)uni-osnabrueck.de                                                      
​ +49 (0) 541 969-7141
Research interests: Investigating if the peculiarity of auxotrophy in E. coli ​is an influential factor in microbial networks interactions.
 B.Sc. candidate Michèle Sawatzki
 misawatzki(at)uni-osnabrueck.de                                                      
​ +49 (0) 541 969-7141
Research interests: Understanding if auxotrophy-causing mutations drive the emergence of synergistic ecological interactions.
 B.Sc. candidate Finn Dinnus
 fdinnus(at)uni-osnabrueck.de                                                      
​ +49 (0) 541 969-2255
Research interests: The fitness effects of partner loss in free-living mutualistic associations.
B.Sc. Pía-Kathleen Habekost
 phabekost(at)uni-osnabrueck.de                                                       
​ ​+49 (0) 541 969-2854
Research interests: Soil bacterial communities and the impact of stress.
B.Sc. Karmen Lohstroh
 klohstroh(at)uni-osnabrueck.de                                                  
​ ​+49 (0) 541 969-7141
Research interests: Bacterial innovations in the context of multicellularity.
Past Members (Alumni)
Technical assistants
Eva Limpinsel   (2016-2017)
Bianca Altmann (2017-2018)
Marita Hermann (2018-2020)
Björn Reiling (2020-2024)
Postdoctoral students
Dr. rer. nat. Chong Becker  (2017)
Dr. Piyali Pal Chowdhury  (2016-2020)
Dr. Silvia Kost  (2016-2022)
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)
Lefkothea Karamani (2024)
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)
Nikolas Westerwiede Barros (2023)
Antonia Casto (2023)
Gina Marie Langenberg (2024)
Pia-Sophie Kruckemeyer (2024)
Elias Schütte (2024)
Tomke Swyter  (2024)
Juliana Averdiek  (2024)
Lukas Thomalla  (2024)
Brian Gaertner (2025)
Jan Gregor Bialy (2025)
Internship students
Ramya Ganesan (2017)
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
Dr. Glen D'Souza             PhD Thesis: "The evolution of metabolic dependency in bacteria" (2011-2016)                  
​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
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
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.
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) 
Dr. Linéa Muhsal      PhD Thesis: "The evolution of cooperation in bacterial communities - an in-depth analysis using experimental and modelling approaches" (2018-2024)