Cyanobacteria Labs

Ilka M. Axmann is Professor for Synthetic Microbiology at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Her current research centers on synbio tools for understanding gene regulation and engineering terpene biosynthesis in cyanobacteria and their co-cultures.

#synbio #circadianclock #metabolicengineering

Bruno Bühler is Professor of Applied Biocatalysis in a common appointment of the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ - Leipzig, Germany. His research group focuses on whole-cell biocatalysis and aims at the development of efficient and stable bioprocesses via an integrated biocatalyst and reaction engineering approach. Specifically, redox biotransformations, in vivo cascades / orthogonal pathways, and fermentative approaches are targeted via enzyme, metabolic, reaction, and process engineering to develop and apply engineered microbial cells for the eco-efficient production of bulk and fine chemicals as well as fuels and bioactives from renewable resources, including sunlight, water, and CO2, i.e., making use of photosynthesis with cyanobacteria as host strains. 

#biocatalysis #synbio #metabolicengineering

Jeffrey Cameron is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, USA. His group's current research focuses on single-cell analyses of carbon-fixation and photosynthesis in cyanobacteria using imaging and omics approaches.

#single-cell #carboxysome #microscopy

Natalia Correa Aragunde is a group leader ar the Institute of Biological Research at Mar del Plata University, Argentina. Her group studies nitric oxide (NO) signaling in photosynthetic organisms, in particularly cyanobacteria. They are working with Synechococcus PCC 7335, which has a singular nitric oxide synthase (NOS) enzyme. The syNOS has a canonical oxygenase and reductase domain and an original globin domain in the N-terminus. The biological role of the syNOS enzyme is under investigation by genetic and pharmacological approaches. They are studying the participation of syNOS in response to nitrogen starvation and UV-B irradiation. Regarding the latter, they are also characterizing an operon of photolyases, enzymes that repair DNA damages induced by UV-B, and its role in protecting Synechococcus PCC 7335 from this radiation using RT- qPCR and DNA dot blot, among other molecular biology techniques.

#nitricoxide #UV-B #generegulation

Estelle Couradeau is an Assistant Professor of Soils and Environmental Microbiology at Pennsylvania State University, USA. The research of her group focuses on how soil microbiomes will answer climate change. One of the model systems are biocrusts, where they look at bundle-forming cyanobacteria and their relationship with other members of the community. Applied techniques include among others activity probing (BONCAT), omics technologies, imaging, x-ray tomography, and microfluidics.

#biocrust #microcoleus #microbiome

Camila Crnkovic is an Assistant Professor in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Her group investigates the chemistry of cyanobacteria as a source of natural products with potential use as pharmaceuticals. They combine bioprospecting tools such as metabolomics and genomics aiming at the discovery of bioactive compounds. The lab's pipeline includes strain culture, extraction, bioassay-guided fractionation, dereplication, compound isolation, and structure elucidation. Their collaborative research includes aspects of natural products chemistry, pharmacognosy, chemical biology, biotechnology, pharmacology, and microbiology.

#drugdiscovery #dereplication #metabolomics

Paul D’Agostino is a junior group leader at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. His research focuses on discovering novel natural products and unusual biosynthetic pathways. The group uses a genomics and bioinformatic approach to identify new and interesting pathways. Pathways of interest are characterized using the Direct Pathway Cloning strategy to capture, refactor and heterologously express pathways in both E. coli and cyanobacterial hosts. Paul is most interested in natural products and pathways from new cyanobacterial species isolated from terrestrial symbiotic systems such as lichens and cycads. Learn more in his CyanoWorld seminar talk.

#synbio #naturalproducts #genomics

Tina Eleršek is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Genetic Toxicology and Cancer Biology at the National Institute of Biology, Slovenia. Her group specializes in the ecology of cyanobacteria. Their three main fields are (i) traditional biomonitoring of surface waters based on the Water Framework Directive (biological quality elements phytoplankton and phytobenthos), (ii) molecular detection of toxic cyanobacteria (PCR, qPCR, Sanger, NGS), and (iii) ecotoxicological testing of various pollutants on cyanobacteria.

#molecularmonitoring #cyanotoxins #ecology

Marli Fiore is an Associate Professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and an elected member of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes/Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Phototrophic Bacteria. Her research group, the Cyanos/USP, hosts a large culture collection of tropical cyanobacterial strains, working with microbial ecology and molecular biology. The main areas of study are: genome sequencing, cyanotoxin biosynthesis, and bioactive natural products from cyanobacteria. We use state-of-the-art bioinformatics tools to assemble high-quality genomes from Brazilian strains isolated in different habitats. We also work with metagenomics from environmental samples in ecological studies, performing in silico prediction of bioactive metabolites. Our collaborators contribute to metabolomics and biochemical analysis of the strains, identifying compounds with biotechnological interest through HPLC-MS/MS. Cyanotoxins are explored via PCR, ELISA, and chromatography. Finally, we contribute to the taxonomic description of cyanobacterial diversity, focusing on Brazilian strains.

#genomics #taxonomy #phylogeny

Nicole Frankenberg-Dinkel is a Professor at the Institute for Microbiology at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany. Her group is interested in the biosynthesis, assembly, and disassembly of the phycobilisome and the phycobiliproteins of Prochlorococcus. We study chromophore (i.e., linear tetrapyrrole) biosynthesis and the function of phycobiliprotein lyases, mainly employing protein biochemistry. We are also interested in cyanophages and so-called auxiliary metabolic genes, especially those that are related to photosynthesis. Recently, we also started some synthetic biology in Synechocystis.

#phycobiliproteins #cyanophages #syntheticbiology

Colin Gates is an Assistant Professor at Loyola University Chicago, USA. His group studies photosynthesis, redox regulation, phosphate metabolism, the biophysics of cell growth in various environments, and membrane biogenesis and remodeling.  Their on-site equipment includes various types of spectroscopy (including 77K, JTS, and chlorophyll fluorescence), long-term optical and fluorescence microscopy, CLEM, and oximetry.

#photosynthesis #photosystemII #redoxregulation

Michelle M. Gehringer is a group leader at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany. She brings environmental isolates of cyanobacteria into the lab to investigate the effects of climate change on key metabolic processes such as C and N fixation. Her group utilizes traditional enzymatic assays for monitoring growth and (secondary) metabolite production, as well as qPCR, protein detection, and fluorescence microscopy, to monitor changes in gene expression. The identification and characterization of metallophores from terrestrial cyanobacteria forms a specialist research area in her lab. Learn more in her CyanoWorld seminar talk.

#climatechange #siderophores #nitrogenfixation

Spyros Gkelis is an Associate Professor at the School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and head of the Cyanolab. His group is interested in photosynthetic microorganisms’ diversity, ecotoxicology, metabolomics, and evolution. Currently, their research focus is on understanding the processes underlying bloom formation, secondary metabolite production, and phylogeography in cyanobacteria. 

#phylogeny #ecotoxicology #metabolomics

Berat Haznedaroğlu is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Bogaziçi University, Turkey. As part of the Integrated Biorefinery Concept for Bioeconomy Driven Development (INDEPENDENT), his group focuses on systems biology and multi-omics approaches to utilize the potential of cyanobacteria for biotechnology applications.

#systemsbiology #rnaseq #singlecell

Wolfgang Hess is a Professor of Genetics and Experimental Bioinformatics at the University of Freiburg, Germany. The research of his group is located at the interface of bioinformatics, synthetic biology, experimental RNA biology, and microbial systems biology. They have a long-standing interest in cyanobacteria and other photosynthetic organisms and their functions in the environment, and their biotechnology. They study their CRISPR systems with the aim to understand their functions in antiviral defense and also beyond defense. On the basis of comparative genomic information, computational and experimental tools have been developed and applied to systematically investigate the „genetic dark matter“. This includes the identification of novel regulatory RNAs (antisense and non-coding RNAs) and understanding of their functions. Moreover, they are working on the characterization of newly discovered small proteins with functions in regulating primary metabolism and energy metabolism.  

#sRNA #CRISPR-Cas #generegulation

Anastasia Hiskia is the research director of the Photo-Catalytic Processes and Environmental Chemistry group at the National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Greece. Her group focuses on environmental analytical chemistry and metabolomics using mass spectrometry (GC-MS, LC-MS/MS, LC-HRMS) to identify cyanotoxins, cyanopeptides, and water taste & odor compounds as well as mapping cyanotoxins in Greek water bodies. Therefore, her group is extracting, isolating, and identifying cyanobacterial metabolites.

#cyanotoxins #cyanopeptides #massspectrometry

Elisabeth Janssen is a research group leader at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology within the ETH Domain in Switzerland. Her group focuses on determining chemical information to evaluate water quality and to protect human health and ecosystem functioning. Her work is rooted in environmental and analytical chemistry of aquatic enzymes, natural toxins, and micropollutants. Specifically, her research focuses on analytical solutions to study site-specific damage of biomolecules and environmental transformation processes. Since 2019, she has been leading the curation of CyanoMetDB, a comprehensive open-access database of secondary metabolites from cyanobacteria manually curated together with an ever-growing team of international experts. Learn more in her CyanoWorld seminar talk.

#CyanoMetDB #toxins #transformation

Tri Kaloudis is a group leader at the Laboratory of Organic Micropollutants of Athens Water Supply & Sewerage Company (EYDAP SA). His group is interested in environmental metabolomics. Especially in metabolites and natural products produced by cyanobacteria and algae, which have, or may have negative effects on water quality and safety. They study a wide range of metabolites, including toxic and bioactive molecules (e.g., cyanotoxins) as well as volatile metabolites with a focus on odorous compounds (e.g., geosmin, MIB). They mostly use mass spectrometry, such as LC-HRMS (qToF) and GC-MS/MS.

#cyanotoxins #metabolites #environmentalmetabolomics

Bin Lai is a group leader of the Working Group Biophotovoltaics at the Department of Environmental Microbiology at Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Germany. The research of his group focuses on the biohybrid technique called Biophotovoltaics (BPV) for sustainable energy production from sunlight and water, aiming to directly harvest the photosynthetic electrons using an external electron sink. We apply interdisciplinary research approaches in our daily work, including synthetic/systems biology, bio- and electrochemical-process engineering, and modeling. We are interested in the fundamental, quantitative, and holistic understandings of extracellular electron transfer pathways on molecular levels and their corresponding biochemistry and microbial physiology, and subsequently, the rational design and development of novel process concepts for optimized desired purposes. 

#photoH2 #electro-photobiotechnology #extracellularelectrontransfer

Pedro Leão is a group leader at CIIMAR - University of Porto, Portugal. The research of his group focuses on the chemistry and biosynthesis of cyanobacterial natural products.

#secondarymetabolites #biosynthesis #nmr

Luis López Maury is a group leader at the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (IBVF) at the University of Seville, Spain. The main research objective of his group is to improve the productivity of photosynthetic microorganisms with applications in biotechnology and aquaculture. They focus their research on several model organisms under different stress conditions with a special emphasis on metals.  They apply different approaches in biophysics (thermoluminescence, high-temperature thermoluminescence, laser-flash photolysis spectrophotometry), synthetic biology, or different -omics to understand how cyanobacteria adapt to metal stress conditions, either excess or limitation. These will also facilitate the use of cyanobacteria as bio-factories, allowing rational optimization of media used for its cultivation. Learn more in his CyanoWorld seminar talk.

#metalhomesotasis #generegulation #synbio

Alistair McCormick is a Professor of Plant Engineering Biology at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His group studies photosynthetic biochemistry and physiology in cyanobacteria, microalgae, and plants, including exploring novel ways to improve the efficiency of photosynthetic carbon capture with CO2-concentrating mechanisms and developing cyanobacteria as bio-platforms for generating high-value products. Learn more in his CyanoWorld seminar talk.

#photosynthesis #Rubisco #synbio

Arun Kumar Mishra is a Professor at the Laboratory of Microbial Genetics at Banaras Hindu University, India. His group has been working on several aspects of cyanobacterial metabolisms and stress-signaling attributes. However, in recent times they are dedicated to understanding certain key metabolisms and signaling prospects in heterocystous cyanobacteria like regulation of sulfur homeostasis, mechanistic signal transduction of circadian cycle, nitric oxide signaling mediated by NOS enzyme and regulation, as well as the pertinence of different cell demise modalities. Besides, they are keenly interested in exploring nature and collecting diverse species of cyanobacteria from different biodiversity reach zones of India like Northeastern Himalaya, Central Plateau, Ganga plains, etc. They confer certain expertise like proteome and metabolome profiling in cyanobacteria, polyphase-based species identification, microscopy, and genetic manipulation techniques.

#circadiancycle #nitricoxide #stressphysiology

Timo Niedermeyer is a Professor at the Institute of Pharmacy at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. His group is interested in biologically active specialized metabolites (natural products) from cyanobacteria. They cultivate, harvest, and extract cyanobacteria strains and isolate the produced metabolites for subsequent structure elucidation and bioactivity characterization. They work on diverse bioactivities, but enzyme inhibitors and cytotoxic compounds are currently in the focus of their work. Techniques we use range from microbiology (strain isolation, cultivation) to chemistry (various chromatographic techniques such as HPLC-DAD/ELSD/MS, high-resolution MS, imaging MS, NMR spectroscopy, etc.) to pharmacology (cell culture, microbiology assays, enzyme assays, C. elegans). Learn more in his CyanoWorld seminar talk.

#naturalproducts #toxins #analytics

Kathrin Rousk is an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where she leads the Ecosystem Ecology group focusing on cyanobacterial nitrogen fixation associated with moss plants. Her group is found in the lab and in the field using traditional methods such as microscopy, culturing, and gas chromatography (to measure nitrogen fixation) as well as more advanced tools such as comparative transcriptomics. Learn more in her CyanoWorld seminar talk. 

#symbiosis #nitrogenfixation #ecology

Dirk Schneider is a Professor at the Institute of Biochemistry at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. His group focuses on the question of how cyanobacteria develop and maintain their inner membrane system, i.e., the thylakoid membranes. Using biochemical and biophysical techniques, coupled with cryo-EM analyses, we analyze the principles guiding the interaction of membrane remodeling proteins with cyanobacterial membranes. Many of the proteins we study were previously thought to be “eukaryotic inventions”. Thus, we study cyanobacterial membrane dynamics in the light of eukaryotic principles.

#membranedynamics #proteinbiochemistry #proteinbiophysics

Prashant Singh is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. His group is involved in studying the taxonomy and systematics of cyanobacteria from different habitats using a polyphasic approach. With a particular emphasis on the heterocystous clade, they are closely monitoring and describing new lineages of cyanobacteria along with trying to understand their relationship with climate change. The past few years have seen their lab describing new taxa at the family, generic and species levels from different parts of the world.

#taxonomy #polyphasicapproach #phylogeny

Vitor Vasconcelos is a Professor at the University of Porto, the Director of CIIMAR, and the team leader of the Blue Biotechnology and Ecotoxicology (BBE) Team of CIIMAR. The main objective of BBE is the study and valorization of bioactive compounds produced mainly by microorganisms (e.g., cyanobacteria, microalgae), with a special emphasis on toxins and other natural compounds with pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, allelopathic, ecological, antifoulings, and other industrial applications. Isolation and culture of cyanobacteria, bioactivity, and chemistry-guided isolation as well as structure elucidation of compounds are among their specialties.

#toxins #biotechnology #biodiversity

Anthony Vecchiarelli is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, USA. His group's research uses genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, and bioinformatics to understand how bacteria organize fundamental processes in the cell. The goal is to determine the molecular mechanisms underlying the subcellular organization of bacterial organelles such as carboxysomes.

#carboxysomes

Arash Zamyadi is a senior lecturer in Water Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University, Australia. His research centers around supervised and knowledge-guided machine learning for the detection of cyanobacteria and their metabolite as well as remote sensing, removal of harmful and nuisance metabolites from water and wastewater, and hydrogen economy-based advanced oxidation.

#cyanobacteria #watertreatment #machinelearning 

Ana Karen Zarate Rivera is the Head of the collection of type cultures and new isolates of cyanobacteria in Mexico at the Algae Bank Culture Collection in Mexico. They are suppliers to the main research centers throughout the country and some institutes in Central and South America. Their main focus is on the characterization of pigment profiles and the detection of the capabilities of cyanobacteria in the agricultural field.

#pigments #newisolates #agro

Julie Zedler is a Junior-Professor for Synthetic Biology of Photosynthetic Organisms at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. Her group's research focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms in cyanobacteria and expanding their capabilities to develop efficient light-driven systems for sustainable biotechnology. To achieve this, they are using metabolic and genetic engineering techniques as well as molecular biology and biochemical methods combined with imaging. Some topics they address are the spatial organization of heterologous product synthesis, membrane protein engineering, and characterization of protein translocation. Additionally, we want to gain more insights into the processing of environmental signals in co-cultures and communities of these organisms. We work with a range of model- and fast-growing cyanobacteria (Synechocystis, Synechococcus, Nostoc) depending on the specific project goal. Learn more in her Cyano2020 summer school talk.

#proteintargeting #synbio #membranes