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Research & Infrastructure
Research in the Becker lab aims at understanding organizational principles of bacterial genomes, and the molecular-mechanistic repertoire of microorganisms to sense, interpret, respond and adapt to changes in their abiotic and biotic environment. Building on this knowledge, we tailor bacterial platform organisms (synthetic biology chassis) to enable metabolic or regulatory rewiring and implementation of new biological functions.
Research in our group is organized around three central themes:
· Bacterial adaptation to the abiotic and biotic environment (learn more)
· Organization of bacterial cells and genomes (learn more)
· Development of microbial synthetic biology chassis (learn more)
We use methods of molecular genetics, genetic engineering, synthetic biology, omics approaches, microscopy and lab automation. Our research involves the development of novel genetic engineering tools, lab automation methods, and experimental high-throughput approaches.
Collaborations
We closely collaborate with researchers at the Science Campus Marburg (e.g. from SYNMIKRO and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology) and from other academic national and international institution (e.g. in France, Spain, Italy, UK, USA, Argentina, Australia), as well as with industrial partners.
We are members of the following research consortia or initiatives:
· Microbes-for-Climate Initiative (M4C)
· CO2BioTech: FUMaric acid BIO-based (FumBio)
· RTG 2937 – Nucleotide Metabolism in Microbes (MiNu)
· RU 5571 (PhytOakmeter)
· LOEWE Research Cluster: Robust chloroplasts for natural and synthetic carbon fixation
· LOEWE Research Cluster: Mechanisms of resilience and environmental impact of the
tree leaf microbiome (Tree-M)
· LOEWE Research Cluster: Impact of diffusible signals at human cell-microbe interfaces (Diffusible Signals)
· National Research Data Infrastructure NFDI4Microbiota