Meet Microbial Cell’s editorial board, which includes renowned scientists in diverse fields of unicellular and mammalian research, warranting the quality of our published articles. Given the large subject heterogeneity in the area of microbiology, our Academic Editors are subdivided into subareas to guarantee that submitted articles are assessed with the necessary quality and competence in the specific field.
Editors-in-chief
Frank Madeo is a professor at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz. He discovered and initiated the field of yeast apoptosis and has since then focused his research on the identification and characterization of conserved regulators and mechanisms of programmed cell death. At the same time, he investigates the function and control of pathways and processes underlying aging from yeast to mice, which recently led to the identification of spermidine as an autophagy inducer with anti-aging properties.
He is currently professor at the Faculty of Medicine (University of Paris Descartes) and additionally affiliated to the French Medical Research Council (INSERM), the Institut Gustave Roussy, and the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou (Paris). His lab discovered the fundamental role of mitochondrial permeabilization in programmed cell death and has ever since continued to elucidate the role of mitochondria in pathological cell death. Additionally, he is interested in the regulation and function of autophagy in disease processes and the contribution of immune response to dying cancer cells.
He studied and worked at the University of Tübingen, the University of Washington, and the Technical University of Graz and is currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz. His research mainly focuses on deciphering the mechanisms underlying apoptotic and non-apoptotic programmed cell death employing yeast as a model organism. Furthermore, he is interested in devising pharmacological approaches to counteract aging-related cellular and organismal dysfunctions.
Executive Editors
Sebastian studied Molecular Microbiology at the Technical University of Graz (Austria) and the Karl-Franzens-University Graz and did research at the Free University of Berlin (Germany). He obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology, focusing on intermittent fasting and the modulation of the polyamine metabolism as feasible strategies to prolong health- and lifespan at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences (University of Graz). His current research focus lies on gaining a deeper molecular understanding of therapeutic and pharmacological interventions that slow the process of aging, utilizing yeasts, flies and mice. He is also trained as a “Clinical Trial Specialist” (Medical University of Graz) and is involved in several clinical trials studying the effects of spermidine supplementation and therapeutic fasting in humans.
She studied molecular microbiology at the University of Graz (Austria) and is currently doing her PhD at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz. Her research focuses on metabolic anti-aging properties of dietary compounds. Furthermore, she is interested in the investigation of molecular mechanisms leading to Huntington’s disease using yeast as a model system.
He studied microbiology and biochemistry at the University of Graz (Austria) and the Technical University of Graz (Austria) and is currently doing his PhD at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz. His research focus lies on mitochondrial regulation of cell death and aging using yeast as a model. He is also investigating pharmacological approaches to decelerate age-associated malfunctions.
Managing Editors
She researches and teaches at the University of Graz (Austria). Her main expertise lies on yeast cell death and her current focus of investigation is the identification and characterization of novel antifungal approaches. In addition, she has extensive experience in scientific communication.
Tanja studied Molecular Biology and Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Technology Graz (Austria). She then obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from University College London (UCL) and The Francis Crick Institute, London (UK) researching in vitro reconstitution of cell division with purified proteins. After a Postdoctoral stay at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona (Spain) she currently focuses on using her broad scientific background and experience in European Regulatory Affairs and Medical Devices.
She is a biochemist who obtained her degree from the Martin-Luther University Halle/Saale (Germany). She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Graz (Austria) with expertise in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogens. Her research focus is on the identification and mechanistic characterization of novel antifungal compounds.
Editorial Assistants
Thomas Heger studied biochemistry at the University of Tübingen (Germany), the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) as well as the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich (Germany). He obtained his PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (Switzerland), in Cell- and Systems Biology and Virology where he specialized in software development.
Founding Editorial Board
Rafael de Cabo is a senior investigator at the National Institute on Aging (National Institutes of Health, USA) and an active member of the Board of the American Aging Association. His research focuses on the molecular pathways underlying the impact of caloric restriction on aging and investigates the effects and mechanisms of pharmacological and other anti-aging interventions.
He is President and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging (California, USA). During his graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) in Leonard Guarentes laboratory, he contributed decisively to the discovery of Sirtuins as aging modulators. His current research involves nutrient signaling pathways linked to dietary restriction, particularly the TOR pathway. He also studies A-type nuclear lamins, which are targets for mutation in Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome.
Lorenzo Galluzzi studied at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and at the University of Paris Sud/Paris XI. He is a founding member of the European Research Institute for Integrated Cellular Pathology and an editor for several scientific journals in the field of oncology, among others Editor-in-Chief of “OncoImmunology”. His research focuses on several aspects of mitochondrial cell death, autophagy, oncogenic signaling pathways and tumor immunology. He is currently an Associate Professor at Fox Chase Cancer Center (USA) and Temple University Graduate School (USA) as well as a Honorary Assistant Professor Adjunct at Yale School of Medicine (USA), a Faculty member of the Universities of Ferrara, Padova and Roma “La Sapienza” (Italy). In addition, he is an Associate Director of the European Academy for Tumor Immunology.
Thomas Nyström is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and a professor at the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Gothenburg. Using the model organisms Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mouse embryonic stem cells, his group investigates the molecular mechanisms governing cellular deterioration during aging. At the same time, he focuses on elucidating the processes by which aging phenotypes are abolished in the progeny during rejuvenation.
After studies at the Brigham Young University (Utah) and at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, he is now an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah and a member of the Nuclear Control of Cell Growth and Differentiation Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute. His research is centered upon deciphering the molecular factors involved in cellular metabolic control. This has led him to explore the mitochondrial proteome, metabolite-based allostery and energy-sensing pathways.
He is currently a professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology with a joint appointment in the department of Biological Sciences as well as serving as the director of the USC Longevity Institute. His research focuses on the elucidation of fundamental mechanisms and conserved molecular pathways of aging from yeast to mice and humans. He is equally interested in strategies to modulate such pathways to protect against or ameliorate the reaction to different stresses and aging-associated diseases, among others cancer and its chemotherapeutic treatment.
After working at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York) and the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich, he is now a professor at the Institute for Genetics of the University of Cologne. His research interests concentrate on deciphering the (proteolytic) mechanisms of mitochondrial quality control using yeast and mice as model systems. In addition, he analyzes the pathogenic relevance of the mitochondrial proteolytic system, for instance in neurodegenerative disorders.
Chris Meisinger studied and obtained his PhD at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and is currently a professor at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Center of Biological Signaling Studies (University of Freiburg). His lab is interested in the mitochondrial proteome with emphasis on mitochondrial protein import pathways, signaling and turnover. Moreover, he investigates the role of mitochondria in the regulation of programmed cell death.
Academic Editors
Ludovico’s lab uses the eukaryotic budding yeast model to gain new insights into cell stress response, including cell survival and cell death decisions. Research in her lab is particularly focused on the impact that cell decisions have on ageing and life span. Her group is also investigating the toxic effects of human protein-related diseases. Current projects and interests include mitochondrial bioenergetics and metabolic control of cell death, reactive oxygen species signaling and their relevance for autophagy and cell fate upon stress.
She’s an associated professor at the Department of Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Rome “Sapienza” (Italy). She has expertise in yeast genetics and molecular biology. Among her studies, she has shown a relationship between mRNA metabolism and the onset of apoptosis and chronological aging. She has also demonstrated the involvement of yeast caspase in the variation of mitochondrial morphology during the apoptotic process and the role of mitochondrial morphology genes during aging. She currently also uses yeast to study the effect of human gene expression and new uncharacterized molecules on longevity and cell death.
The Gourlay lab holds a strong interest in the role that actin plays in the control of homeostatic mechanisms that contribute to healthy ageing. Of particular interest are interactions between actin, mitochondria and signal transduction pathways that are crucial to cellular response to stress. The lab also uses yeast as a model eukaryote to study a number of aspects of cancer biology and the toxicity associated with protein aggregations linked to human disease.
Vladimir Titorenko is a professor at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). His group investigates molecular mechanisms underlying cellular aging, survival and death in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. He also uses yeast as a model organism for identifying novel longevity-extending and anti-tumor natural compounds as well as for elucidating the evolution of longevity regulation mechanisms within ecosystems.
Marina Vai is a full professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy). She has long been interested in the biogenesis of the fungal cell wall with particular emphasis on a family of [beta]1,3-glucanosyltransferases of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Her current laboratory projects are mainly centered on yeast chronological aging and the underlying metabolic pathways.
His research is now centered on yeast as an aging model, mitochondria, and NADPH oxidases.
Heinz D. Osiewacz is a professor at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt/ Main (Germany). Using the fungal model systems Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Podospora anserina his group investigates the molecular basis of organism aging with special emphasis on the role of mitochondria. His lab’s studies have led to the demonstration of an impact of various molecular pathways like apoptosis, autophagy, proteostasis, mitochondrial dynamics, and mtDNA instability on aging and lifespan control.
Ida van der Klei is a professor in Molecular Cell Biology at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). Her group studies various aspects of peroxisome biology in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Hansenula polymorpha), including peroxisome function, biogenesis and dynamics. In addition, she studies peroxisomal quality control processes such as peroxisomal proteases and pexophagy as well as the role of peroxisomes in ageing.
His lab uses the budding yeast S. cerevisiae to dissect the genetic architecture of multiple traits related to ageing and cancer. In all aspects of his group’s research, natural variation in the budding yeast is exploited as a tool for understanding how a phenotype is genetically regulated.
Among organelles of the yeast cell, vacuoles begin to deteriorate in a very early stage of aging. As such, he is focusing on the contribution of late endosome-vacuolar membrane trafficking to the aging of the yeast cell.
Nicanor
Austriaco
Providence College (USA)
He currently serves as an Associate Professor of Biology and an Instructor of Theology at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island (USA). He earned his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Leonard Guarente at M.I.T. where he was a pre-doctoral fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and his S.T.L. from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. At the present time, he is completing a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). His laboratory is investigating the genetics of programmed cell death using the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans as model organisms.
Kathryn
Ayscough
University of Sheffield (UK)
Kathryn Ayscough’s lab works on understanding the mechanism and regulation of endocytosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Her group has a particular interest in how the actin cytoskeleton is able to stablize the endocytic site and drive invagination of the plasma membrane and, also in how the dynamin-like protein Vps1 co-operates with amphiphysins to bring about scission of the endocytic vesicle.
Manuela
Côrte-Real
University of Minho (Portugal)
She has been particularly interested on the role of mitochondria in yeast apoptosis induced by acetic acid and ceramide with special focus on the elucidation of mechanisms underlying mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization and release of apoptogenic factors. She has also been exploiting the yeast heterologous expression system to study regulation of mammalian apoptosis components, such as members of the Bcl-2 family. More recently, she has been investigating the role of the vacuole and its crosstalk with mitochondria during apoptosis. To validate their findings with the yeast model system, mammalian cell lines have been used.
Birthe
Fahrenkrog
Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
Birthe Fahrenkrog is a professor at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). Her lab has been identifying apoptotic regulators conserved in yeast and is engaged in their characterization. At the same time, she is interested in epigenetic regulation of apoptotic cell death in S. cerevisiae and humans.
Ali
Gargouri
University of Sfax (Tunisia)
Besides hydrolytic enzymes and fungal biotechnology, his lab focuses on the study of yeast apoptosis mediated by the overexpression of p53 human gene. His group also investigates the molecular status and the epigenetics of cancer genes in Tunisian patients.
Sergio
Giannattasio
Italian National Research Council
His group at the Institute of Biomembranes and Bioenergetics of the National Research Council (Bari, Italy) uses the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to study cell death and stress response to identify new regulatory compounds/processes. He is interested in mitochondrial signaling and metabolism that regulate cell life and death decisions and in the use of yeast to study the mechanisms of action of cancer susceptibility genes.
Stéphen
Manon
University of Bordeaux Segalen (France)
Editor’s portrait and information coming up soon.
Enzo
Martegani
University of Milano Bicocca (Italy)
His lab focuses its research on the involvment of the Ras signaling pathway in yeast apoptosis and survival and on the role played by active Ras in mitochondrial functions. Another relevant point of his work is the intracellular localization of the Ras/cAMP components and the evaluation of these elements (Ras-GTP, cAMP, PKA) in single cells.
Lynn
Megeney
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (Canada)
Lynn Megeney is a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Canada). The Megeney research group discovered the conserved non-death role of apoptotic proteins and pathways from yeast to mammals. The Megeney group continues to investigate the essential role that caspases/metacaspases play in cell differentiation, adaptation and proteostasis.
Hay-Oak
Park
Ohio State University (USA)
Her lab investigates how cell polarity and asymmetry are established using budding yeast as a model organism. Her group’s current projects focus on a GTPase signaling pathway involved in polarity establishment; assembly and asymmetrical positioning of a macromolecular complex that specifies a growth site; development of mathematical modeling and empirical testing of morphogenesis; and role of small GTPases in the oxidative stress response and cell death.
Patrick
Rockenfeller
University of Kent (UK)
Patrick Rockenfeller´s research focuses on the identification of lipotoxic cell death and autophagy pathways in yeast. He is particularly interested in the lipid species and mechanisms which induce/regulate cell death and/or autophagy.
Amir
Sharon
Tel Aviv University (Israel)
His research focuses on the study of programmed cell death (PCD) in yeast and filamentous fungi focusing on PCD networks in fungi and on the role of PCD in fungal pathogenesis.
Kevin
Tan
National University of Singapore
Kevin Tan is an associate professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his PhD at NUS and pursued his postdoctoral research at The Rockefeller University (USA). His research focuses on understanding cell death mechanisms in parasitic protozoa, with an emphasis on malaria parasites. His group was the first to report on lysosome-mediated cell death in malaria parasites. With a deeper understanding of such mechanisms, he is developing new tools for drug discovery in order to identify novel and effective therapeutics.
Karin
Thevissen
KU Leuven (Belgium)
Her main research activities are related to drug discovery, especially in the anti-infective field (including antifungal and antibiofilm compounds) as well as in the field of anti-apoptosis, the latter related to disorders such as Wilson’s disease and metabolic syndrome. For this diverse set of drug discovery tasks, her lab uses yeast as a model organism. Antifungal/antibiofilm and anti-apoptotic compounds are subsequently further evaluated in appropriate human cell lines, in lower model organisms (e.g. worm or zebrafish) and in higher eukaryotic organisms (rodent). A major part of her research focuses on unraveling the mode of action of the antifungal/antibiofilm and anti-apoptotic compounds using yeast as a model organism.
Arnaldo
Videira
University of Porto (Portugal)
He prepared a PhD thesis at the University of Munich (Germany) that was presented to the University of Porto (Portugal), where he is currently a professor of Molecular Genetics at ICBAS-Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar. He has long been interested in mitochondrial biogenesis and bioenergetics and its relevance for disease. His current research interests focus on the molecular characterization of novel proteins and metabolic pathways involved in programmed cell death, including the mitochondrial connection.
Richard
Zhao
University of Maryland (USA)
Richard Zhao is a professor of pathology, microbiology-immunology and human virology at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine (USA). His laboratory developed a fission yeast model to study HIV-1, especially the role of HIV-1 viral protein R (Vpr) in cell cycle G2/M regulation, cell death/apoptosis and viral pathogenesis. A current research interest is the development of high throughput fission yeast platforms for screening of anti-HIV drugs, including HIV-1 Vpr and drug-resistant proteases.
Birthe Fahrenkrog is a professor at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). Her lab has been identifying apoptotic regulators conserved in yeast and is engaged in their characterization. At the same time, she is interested in epigenetic regulation of apoptotic cell death in S. cerevisiae and humans.
His group at the Institute of Biomembranes and Bioenergetics of the National Research Council (Bari, Italy) uses the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to study cell death and stress response to identify new regulatory compounds/processes. He is interested in mitochondrial signaling and metabolism that regulate cell life and death decisions and in the use of yeast to study the mechanisms of action of cancer susceptibility genes.
She has been particularly interested on the role of mitochondria in yeast apoptosis induced by acetic acid and ceramide with special focus on the elucidation of mechanisms underlying mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization and release of apoptogenic factors. She has also been exploiting the yeast heterologous expression system to study regulation of mammalian apoptosis components, such as members of the Bcl-2 family. More recently, she has been investigating the role of the vacuole and its crosstalk with mitochondria during apoptosis. To validate their findings with the yeast model system, mammalian cell lines have been used.
Richard Zhao is a professor of pathology, microbiology-immunology and human virology at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine (USA). His laboratory developed a fission yeast model to study HIV-1, especially the role of HIV-1 viral protein R (Vpr) in cell cycle G2/M regulation, cell death/apoptosis and viral pathogenesis. A current research interest is the development of high throughput fission yeast platforms for screening of anti-HIV drugs, including HIV-1 Vpr and drug-resistant proteases.
He currently serves as an Associate Professor of Biology and an Instructor of Theology at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island (USA). He earned his Ph.D. in the laboratory of Leonard Guarente at M.I.T. where he was a pre-doctoral fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and his S.T.L. from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. At the present time, he is completing a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). His laboratory is investigating the genetics of programmed cell death using the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans as model organisms.
Besides hydrolytic enzymes and fungal biotechnology, his lab focuses on the study of yeast apoptosis mediated by the overexpression of p53 human gene. His group also investigates the molecular status and the epigenetics of cancer genes in Tunisian patients.
Lynn Megeney is a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Canada). The Megeney research group discovered the conserved non-death role of apoptotic proteins and pathways from yeast to mammals. The Megeney group continues to investigate the essential role that caspases/metacaspases play in cell differentiation, adaptation and proteostasis.
His research focuses on the study of programmed cell death (PCD) in yeast and filamentous fungi focusing on PCD networks in fungi and on the role of PCD in fungal pathogenesis.
Kevin Tan is an associate professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS). He obtained his PhD at NUS and pursued his postdoctoral research at The Rockefeller University (USA). His research focuses on understanding cell death mechanisms in parasitic protozoa, with an emphasis on malaria parasites. His group was the first to report on lysosome-mediated cell death in malaria parasites. With a deeper understanding of such mechanisms, he is developing new tools for drug discovery in order to identify novel and effective therapeutics.
Her main research activities are related to drug discovery, especially in the anti-infective field (including antifungal and antibiofilm compounds) as well as in the field of anti-apoptosis, the latter related to disorders such as Wilson’s disease and metabolic syndrome. For this diverse set of drug discovery tasks, her lab uses yeast as a model organism. Antifungal/antibiofilm and anti-apoptotic compounds are subsequently further evaluated in appropriate human cell lines, in lower model organisms (e.g. worm or zebrafish) and in higher eukaryotic organisms (rodent). A major part of her research focuses on unraveling the mode of action of the antifungal/antibiofilm and anti-apoptotic compounds using yeast as a model organism.
His research interests are focused on the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that lead to neurodegeneration in diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, or Alzheimer’s disease. These diseases are intimately associated with protein misfolding and aggregation in specific regions of the brain. Because the molecular pathways involved in protein homeostasis are highly conserved, his group employs a wide variety of model organisms, from the simple but powerful budding yeast to mammalian cell culture and mice, to study the origin of the problems.
His research focuses on the elucidation of the multiplicity role and the apparent redundancy of CDKs in the control of eukaryotic cell cycle. His group is currently involved in the study of mechanisms that modulate cyclins stability and how nutrients control the cell cycle molecular machinery.
Anand K Bachhawat has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Calcutta (India) and has done post-doctoral studies at the MGH Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston (USA) and the Department of Biology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (USA). He is currently a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali (India). His research interests are in glutathione and cysteine homeostasis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
After PhD studies at KU Leuven (Belgium), he spent a post-doctoral period at Yale University (USA), and became appointed as professor at the KU Leuven and later also as Director of the Department of Molecular Microbiology of the life sciences research institute VIB (Belgium). His research focuses on the mechanisms involved in nutrient sensing and signaling in yeast and the polygenic analysis of complex traits for the development of superior industrial yeast strains.
His major research goals are to understand the mechanism of propagation and the phenotypic impact of prions in fungi, especially in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The approaches his lab takes are primarily in vivo, exploiting a wide range of genetic and cell biology tools to probe the behaviour of this unique class of epigenetic elements both in laboratory and ‘wild’ strains of yeast. A particular focus is on the cellular factors (e.g. molecular chaperones) that contribute to both the de novo generation and continued propagation of the [PSI+] prion.
Jun-Yi Leu is interested in the general principles and underlying molecular mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation and speciation. In addition, he investigates spatial regulation of proteins and structural dynamics of cellular compartments in quiescent cells.
Marc Blondel is Professor of Cell Biology at the Medical School of the University of Brest (France). He has expertise in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) genetics and molecular biology. His group develops yeast models for various human diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders (especially prion-based diseases), cancers and mitochondrial diseases. The basic idea is to obtain a yeast phenotype that is relevant for the considered disorders and then to look for modifiers of this phenotype. These modifiers can be positive or negative (that is, they may either suppress or exacerbate the phenotype) and they can be drugs or genes or any other biological or chemical moiety. These modifiers are then validated on mammalian cell-based models and then, if possible, in vivo.
The goals of her research are to investigate the physiology of industrial microorganisms, to unravel the molecular mechanisms that drive their response to diverse environmental stimuli and to identify the evolutionary circumstances that have shaped their genomes. Although part of the knowledge generated is used to modify microbes and improve their properties for industrially-relevant applications, her research has contributed to the understanding of fundamental aspects of microbial physiology and metabolism, and more specifically of yeasts. One of the major strengths and field of expertise of her group resides in the implementation of advanced cultivation tools that enable tightly controlled and highly reproducible growth of microbes, like the chemostat and retentostat systems. These tools allow the achievement of unique and highly relevant physiological status that cannot be reached by any standard cultivation tool (i.e. shake-flask and plates).
Editor’s portrait and information coming up soon.
Jesus de la Cruz is currently Professor at the Department of Genetics, University of Seville (Spain) and Group Leader at the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBIS). His laboratory works on understanding the mechanism of ribosome biogenesis in eukaryotic cells using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as model organism. His group is currently focused on the functional analysis of RNA helicases that contribute to yeast ribosome biogenesis. In addition, his laboratory is interested in understanding the precise role of ribosomal proteins in ribosomal subunit assembly.
Carlo V. Bruschi was an NIH post-doctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) of the University of California at Berkeley (USA), then a tenure-track assistant professor and later a tenured associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of the East Carolina University School of Medicine (USA). Since 1990 he is a senior scientist and group leader of the Yeast Molecular Biology Group of ICGEB in Trieste (Italy), where he has pioneered the field of chromosomal translocations induced in vivo, by designing the bridge-induced translocation (BIT) system to construct ad hoc translocations at pre-defined genomic loci, using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as eukaryotic model system.
Editor’s portrait and information coming up soon.
The Bailis laboratory investigates the genetic and molecular control of eukaryotic genome stability using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism. His group has focused primarily on responses by the homologous recombination machinery to defined DNA double-strand breaks, defective DNA replication and telomere uncapping. This work suggests that the genetic control of the balance between homologous recombination mechanisms that conserve and those that alter chromosome structure is a critical determinant of genome stability.
Luis Aragon is currently a Professor at Imperial College London (UK) and Group Leader at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre. His laboratory studies molecular mechanisms orchestrating the equal and faithful segregation of chromosomes during cellular division. His group is focused on the analysis of protein complexes that mediate chromosome structure and segregation, namely cohesin, condensin and a novel complex, the SMC5/6 complex. In addition, his laboratory is interested in regulatory networks that operate to coordinate different aspects of the chromosome metabolism, including DNA replication, DNA repair and chromosome segregation with cell cycle progression.
Jürg Bähler is currently a Professor at University College London (UK). His laboratory studies genome regulation during cellular quiescence, ageing and stress response using fission yeast as a model system. His group applies multiple genetic, computational and genome-wide approaches for systems-level understanding of complex relationships between genotype, phenotype and environment, including roles of genome variation and evolution, transcriptome regulation, and non-coding RNAs.
The localization of DNA within the nucleus is controlled and has important effects on nuclear functions. The Brickner lab uses yeast and metazoan models to 1) define the molecular mechanisms by which DNA can be directed to different subnuclear environments and 2) determine the functional significance of subnuclear localization of DNA on transcription and chromatin structure.
Michael Chang is an Assistant Professor at the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing within the University of Groningen and the University Medical Center Groningen (The Netherlands). His research group uses the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to study telomere maintenance and genome integrity as it relates to cancer and aging.
The Kupiec lab is interested in the mechanisms that guard the integrity of the genome. Our research includes subjects such as DNA repair and recombination, DNA damage checkpoint response and telomere biology.
The Klein lab studies pathways used for DNA damage avoidance, focusing on regulation of the Rad51 recombinase through the action of DNA translocases and helicases. The lab is also studying the consequences of rNMP misincorporation into DNA and the factors that process the damage as a consequence of this error. The yeast system S. cerevisiae is used as a model for the human disease Aicardi Goutieres syndrome, which arises from defects in processing aberrant nucleic acids.
Editor’s portrait and information coming up soon.
Novel peptide-based antimicrobials are of great interest to his group. Whether ribosomally or non-ribosomally synthesized, these compounds often contain complex structures and systems leading to their production. His research is aimed at understanding the microbial physiology leading to the production of these compounds and the microbial physiology/mechanism of action of how these compounds target microorganisms.
Dr Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis received his medical degree Summa Cum Laude from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). He then did a post-doctoral research fellowship in Infectious Diseases at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (Texas, USA), followed by training in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (Texas, USA) where he served as a Chief Resident. He was subsequently trained as a clinical fellow in Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and obtained a Master in Clinical Sciences from Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA). He spent 3 years at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Sciences as a fellow in the Harvard/MIT Clinical Investigators Training Program. He is currently the Frances King Black Endowed Professor and Deputy Head-Research in the Division of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and adjunct professor at Baylor College of Medicine and University of Houston (USA). His research work is in the area of experimental and clinical mycology, focusing on traditional (mouse) and mini-host (Drosophila) models of infection, antifungal drug resistance, pathogenesis, pharmacology and various aspects of epidemiology, diagnostics and treatment of fungal infections. He is the recipient of several national and institutional awards, has authored over 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts and invited to give over 100 lectures in international conferences and prestigious institutions in US and abroad.
The group of Thomas Rudel investigates pathogenicity mechanisms of different microorganisms, including the major human pathogens Chlamydia, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Staphylococcus aureus. His research focuses on the subversion of innate immune signaling by these pathogens and on the interface of infection and cancer.
Ian Macreadie is an Adjunct Professor of Edith Cowan University (Australia) and an Associate Professor of RMIT University (Australia). His background is in yeast mitochondrial genetics. His 24 years at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia) focused on vaccines, AIDS, malaria, drug resistance and Alzheimer’s disease, all using yeast. At RMIT University he continues to utilise yeast as a model organism for the study of human health and disease.
Fulvio Reggiori is an Associate Professor at the Department of Cell Biology of the University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands). He is investigating the regulation and mechanism of autophagy using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism. His laboratory is also studying the autophagy-pathogen interaction mostly in the context of viral infections.
His laboratory is interested in the mechanisms and evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.
Dr. Nilgun E. Tumer has pioneered the use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model to study the mechanism of action of ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) such as ricin, pokeweed antiviral protein, Shiga toxins and trichothecene mycotoxins produced by Fusarium graminearum, which causes Fusarium head blight (FHB). RIPs depurinate the α-sarcin/ricin loop (SRL) of the large rRNA and inhibit protein synthesis. Fusarium mycotoxins such as dioxynivalenol (DON) accumulate in wheat and barley and are major problems for food safety. Dr. Tumer investigates how RIPs interact with ribosomes, inhibit translation and cause cell death and how trichothecene mycotoxins affect mitochondria.
Dr. Schilds main interests lie in bacterial pathogenesis and bacterial adaptation in response to environmental and host conditions as well as in biogenesis and physiological roles of bacterial membrane vesicles.
His research is mainly focused on the characterization of HIV antibodies and their effector functions including antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP). He is also very interested in the development of high throughput screening platforms to evaluate antibody immune responses in vaccinated or HIV-infected individuals.
The laboratory of Teresa Frisan is interested in understanding the role of bacterial genotoxins in acute and chronic bacterial infection. Bacterial genotoxins are relative new members of bacterial effectors, which cause DNA damage to the host cells. However, their role in the context of infections is still poorly characterized. Her group’s research activity is devoted to the development of in vivo, in vitro and ex vivo models to address this complex question. The scientific interests cover several aspects of the biology of this toxin family: from internalization to remodeling of the host microenvironment at cellular, tissue and systemic levels. Specifically, her lab is interested in assessing whether the toxins’ DANN-damaging activity and ability to promote genomic instability may be associated with tumor initiation/progression in persistent infections.
Prof. Moya studied Biology and Philosophy simultaneously at the University of València (Spain), obtaining a PhD in Biology in 1983, and a PhD in Philosophy in 1988. He was Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California (Davis, USA), and an Invited Professor at the University of California (Irvine, USA). In 1986, he created the Evolutionary Genetics Research Group at the Department of Genetics of the University of València, where he is a Professor of Genetics since 1993. Prof. Moya was the promoter of the Cavanilles Institut of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology at the University of València, the Astrobiology Center (CSIC-INTA) and the Public Health Research Center (CSISP), now integrated in the Valencian Region Foundation for the Promotion of Health (FISABIO). Currently, he chairs an Institutional Professorship between FISABIO and the University of València. Prof. Moya is the author of approximately five hundred publications about Genetics, Evolution and the Philosophy of Biology. He is involved in the study of the human microbiome under an evolutionary and system biology perspective. Prof. Moya is a founding member of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, the Spanish Society of Virology and the Spanish Society of Evolutionary Biology, for which he is the current President. He received the “Ciutat de Barcelona” award (1996), the “Diario Médico” award (2006), the “2012 National Award of Genetics” (2012), the “2013 Lilly Award in Biomedical Research”, and the “Mexico Award in Science and Technology” (2015). He is also fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1998.
His work focuses on studying the responses of microbial communities and isolated microbes to external stress such as antimicrobial agents. Understanding how these extracellular stressors affect our microbiome will provide critical biological insight into the development of dysbiosis, disease, and antibiotic resistance. Relying on recent advances in high-throughput DNA and RNA sequencing, his lab is studying the effects of antimicrobial agents on these highly complex microbial communities to identify microbial mechanisms that lead to improved antimicrobial tolerance and the development of resistance.
His lab aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms governing mitochondrial quality control focusing on mitophagy and mitochondrial dynamics. How these processes are linked to the aging process and the pathogenesis of numerous human disorders is a major interest of his research. Another focus is to understand the molecular mechanisms that shape the inner mitochondrial membrane, particularly, cristae and crista junctions and their importance in cellular viability.
Marcel Deponte is currently working as an independent group leader and at the Department of Parasitology at the Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg (Germany). He is interested in comparative protein biochemistry with an emphasis on enzymology and molecular parasitology. His group compares the mechanisms of redox enzymes as well as mitochondrial protein import machineries from yeast, the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and the kinetoplastid parasite Leishmania tarentolae.
His group investigates the molecular mechanisms by which mitochondrial outer membrane proteins are targeted to mitochondria, inserted into the outer membrane and assembled into functional complexes. He further studies the homeostasis of mitochondrial lipids and their importance for the aforementioned processes. For these studies the group uses both yeast and mammalian tissue cultures as experimental systems.
Plácido Navas studied at the University of Seville (Spain) and Purdue University (Indiana, USA). He is currently a member of the Centre for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER) and mainly involved in mitochondrial pathology. His focus is on the regulation of coenzyme Q biosynthesis complex and its role in the assembly and efficiency of respiratory complexes. He is interested in the role of bioenergetics in both health and life span, and the connection of coenzyme Q biosynthesis pathway and mitophagy.
He is interested in mitochondrial biology, metal (zinc, iron and copper) biology and their relevance to death, the action of drugs and neurodegenerative diseases. His group studies these questions using the yeast and fruit fly model organisms.
Editor’s portrait and information coming up soon.
Vítor Costa is currently a professor at the University of Porto (Portugal). His research focuses on signalling pathways that control mitochondrial function and redox homeostasis in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. His group is currently interested on the role of sphingolipid signalling in cell death under stress conditions and during cell ageing.
He is interested in transport processes at mitochondrial membranes. His lab uses yeast as a tool to study the permeabilization of mitochondrial membranes caused by mammalian proteins of the Bcl-2 family.
Editor’s portrait and information coming up soon.
Paola Goffrini is a researcher at the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Parma (Italy). She has carried out research in the fields of yeast genetics and molecular biology with particular attention being paid to the study of the nucleo-mitochondrial relationship, on which many cellular processes depend. More recently, her research has aimed at defining yeast as a model system for approaching the molecular bases of human mitochondrial disorders as well as the connection between aging and mitochondrial dysfunction.
He is Professor of Medicine, Head of the Institute of Parasitology and Medical Mycology at the Lyon University Hospital (France) and team leader of the Malaria Research Unit at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS UMR 5246, France). He is also President of the Chemotherapy against Parasite and Fungi (CaPF) network. He was the first to describe malaria parasite apoptosis and Plasmodium metacaspase pathways. He translated basic research to clinical trials and used anti-apoptotic drugs in patients suffering severe malaria in Africa. He has extensive experience of field clinical work in Africa, Asia and South America. He is both biologist and clinician acting at outpatient clinic for travel prevention and diseases.
Nicolas Fasel is full professor at the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). His research is centered around the function of the cysteine protease metacaspase in the cell death of the human Leishmania parasites. Recently, his group reported the important role of a virus present in Leishmania parasites as a factor implicated in the exacerbation of the infection in some forms of leishmaniases.
Carsten Lüder studied biology an the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen (Germany) and is now professor at the Institute for Medical Microbiology of the Georg-August-University of Göttingen (Germany). His major research interests are pathogen-host interactions with a special emphasis on elucidating mechanisms of how the intracellular model parasite Toxoplasma gondii manipulates its host cells in order to evade host immunity and to ensure establishing a chronic infection within its mammalian host.
He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and did a post-doctoral stay at the Wayne State University (USA). He is currently a full professor at the Institute for Anatomy of the Central University of Venezuela (Venezuela). He is interested in: A) the biology of the Trypanosoma and Leishmania, particularly autophagy and cell death; B) membrane transport proteins in protozoa parasites, especially proteins belonging to the aquaporin family; C) their association with physiological processes, and their pharmacological importance.
Mark Field is full professor at the Department of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery at the University of Dundee (UK). He works primarily on the cell biology of trypanosomes, with specific interests in intracellular trafficking, protein processing and events at the nuclear envelope controlling gene expression. He also has interests in evolutionary biology and specifically the reconstruction of evolutionary histories of protein families involved in eukaryotic organelle biogenesis.
Nancy Guillén is a Research Director at the National Center for Scientific Research (France) and is the head of Cell Biology of Parasitism Unit – INSERM U786. Her research domain concerns the pathogenic process of the parasite Entamoeba histolytica, the agent of human amoebiasis. The project is about host-pathogen interactions with research topics including: comparative genome and transcriptome analysis, molecular and cellular pathophysiology coupled with live cells imaging, cell motility and cytoskeleton.
Prof. Dr. Nishith Gupta completed his Master of Science in Biotechnology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (India), and received PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Leipzig (Germany). He then acquired postdoctoral training in Molecular Parasitology and Lipid Biochemistry at the National Jewish Medical Research Center, Denver (United States of America), and later joined Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany) establishing an independent group. In 2016, Dr. Gupta was awarded a Heisenberg fellowship by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and in 2017, he received a Habilitation degree with Venia Legendi (eq. DSc) in Biochemistry from Humboldt University, Berlin. Currently, Dr. Gupta is working as a Professor and Wellcome Trust – DBT Senior fellow at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Hyderabad Campus (India), where he has founded the Intracellular Parasite Education And Research Labs (iPEARL). The primary foci of his work have been to examine the membrane biogenesis, metabolism and signaling in single-cell intracellular parasites concerning their pathogenesis, persistence and adaptation in mammalian host cells. His group has successfully unified the core biological disciplines with optogenetics and multi-omics. His expertise includes biochemistry, genome engineering and cell biology of pathogenic protists.
Antonio Jiménez-Ruiz is a full professor at the Systems Biology Department at the University of Alcalá (Spain). His research group is involved in the characterization of apoptosis-like processes in the Leishmania parasite, paying special attention to putative executer/regulator molecules such as the nuclease EndoG. At the same time, his group is actively involved in the design of new drugs able to disrupt protein-protein interactions in specific targets from the parasite.
His lab is working on the elucidation of pathways involved in de novo synthesis of phospholipids and in lipid modifications of proteins in the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei. A collection of inducible knock-out and knock-down trypanosome strains allows us to study the importance of de novo synthesis of glycerophospholipid classes, in particular phosphatidylethanolamine and cardiolipin, on organelle integrity and function and on protein expression and stability in a highly controlled, i.e. time-dependent, way.
She is a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, a full professor in the Department of Microbiology-Infectious Disease and Immunology at Laval University (Quebec, Canada), and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunity at the CHU de Quebec Research Center. She is leading original work in the field of molecular parasitology with special emphasis on Leishmania post-transcriptional regulation, pathogenesis, functional genomics, and the development of live vaccine-based strategies. Her lab is also interested in deciphering the molecular pathways by which Leishmania parasites respond and adapt to intracellular stress.
Joris Winderickx is a professor at the Department of Biology of KU Leuven (Belgium). He has ample expertise on nutrient- and stress-dependent signaling in yeast. Being convinced that several signaling cascades in yeast are at the origin of more complex pathways in metazoans, he pioneered on the use of yeast as a model to study the molecular mechanisms underlying a variety of human disorders, where the primary focus is on degenerative protein (mis)folding diseases.
Editor’s portrait and information coming up soon.
He studies cell cycle regulation and cell cycle alteration under external and/or internal stress, using budding yeast as a model system. His laboratory is particularly interested in the mechanism of stress-induced cell death at both the cellular and molecular levels.
Katrina Cooper earned her D. Phil. from Oxford University (UK) and pursued post-doctoral studies at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia (USA). Research in her laboratory focuses on deciphering how cells translate external stress signals into the appropriate molecular response. To this end, she is focusing on the molecular mechanisms that trigger stress-induced mitochondrial fission and programmed cell death using both budding yeast and mouse models.
His group is interested in the mechanisms by which cells actively protect themselves from stress in order to prevent premature or inappropriate Programmed Cell Death (PCD). His lab’s main strategy is the identification and characterization of human sequences, and their yeast counterparts, that serve to prevent PCD in yeast.
His research essentially deals with (i) the role of phospho-dephosphorylation mechanisms in the reponse to stress in yeasts and (ii) the overall mechanisms that allow proper regulation of monovalent cation homeostasis.
Maria Segovia studied at the Complutense University Madrid (Spain) where she obtained her PhD in biology. She has worked at Queen’s University Belfast (UK) and at the University of Málaga (Spain) where she is currently lecturer in Ecology at the Department of Ecology and Geology. Her field of expertise and research is focused on the molecular physiology of unicellular algae related to environmental stress, i.e. cell viability and death, oxidative stress, as well as DNA and photosynthesis damage and repair.
His lab studies the links between mitochondrial dynamics, reactive oxygen species formation, stress response, and the cell cycle. His group’s most recent research interest is to apply yeast to study the mechanism of action of mitochondria-targeted antioxidants.
His research focuses on the cellular responses to oxidative stress and the mechanisms of redox regulation including the relationship with metal homeostasis, using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as model.
His research efforts are aimed at understanding the responses of eukaryotic cells to oxidative stress using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism. His lab mainly focuses on the regulation of redox homeostasis and how cells regulate gene expression during stress conditions.
Her group’s research interest is primarily on yeast S. cerevisiae cell death and aging. Her lab combines methods of molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics and systems biology (including omics and modeling) with the scope to study how cells regulate aging and death pathways and how these pathways are related to proteostasis (proteome homeostasis).
Diethard Mattanovich is full professor of Microbial Cell Design at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (Austria). His laboratory focuses on the development and characterization of microbial production organisms for biotechnology. Special emphasis is placed on folding and secretion of recombinant proteins in yeast, and metabolic engineering of bacteria and yeasts to adapt pathways towards production of chemicals of industrial interest. Microbial stress and intracellular transport are main topics of interest. Systems biology methods are applied to study microbial cells at a genome scale level.
Her lab is studying the remodeling of cellular machineries (the actin and tubulin cytoskeletons, the proteasome, the mitochondria, etc.) that occur upon transition from proliferation to quiescence in S. cerevisiae, S. pombe and human cells. Her group also uses quiescent cells-specific cellular reorganizations as tools to understand how quiescent cells do survive and rapidly give rise to a rejuvenated progeny as well as to decipher the cascade of molecular switches that control quiescence exit.
Jeremy Mottram is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Parasitology in the Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology at the University of Glasgow (Scotland). His main research interests are in the molecular mechanisms by which Leishmania and trypanosome parasites undergo cellular remodelling during their complex life cycles. The lab’s focus is on cell signalling events, in particular the role of protein kinases, and the turnover of proteins and organelles, with a focus on peptidases and autophagy. He has yet to be convinced that protozoan parasites undergo programmed cell death.
Editor’s portrait and information coming up soon.
Jean Marie Francois obtained his PhD from the University of Louvain (Belgium). He is full professor in Molecular Physiology, Industrial Microbiology and Nanobiotechnology at the National Institute of Applied Sciences, University of Toulouse (France). His research activity concerns integrated physiology and functional genomics in microbial systems, with a specific focus on carbon and energy metabolism in yeast and filamentous fungi. Another major topic of his group is now focused towards synthetic biology with the aim at exploiting biomass resources to produce chemical synthon through a synthetic microbial metabolism refactoring approach.
Her research is focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying the interplay between metabolic adaptation and oxidative stress in wine yeasts, including the regulation of gene expression at transcriptional and translational levels, the enzymatic and non enzymatic redox defense systems, and the oxidative damage of macromolecular cellular components. All the physiological, biochemical, genetic and environmental factors are taken into account to explain and improve the biotechnological performance of these microorganisms, belonging mainly to Saccharomyces cerevisiae but also to other yeast species, by enhancing their oxidative stress response and longevity. Metabolic engineering in synthetic biology and integrative system biology are also main interest areas where collaborative projects are underway.
Isabel Sá-Correia is Full Professor and Head of the Biological Sciences Research Group at the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal). Her research interests are in the fields of Molecular and Cellular Microbiology, Functional and Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, and Microbial Biotechnology. In the field of Yeast Toxicogenomics, a molecular systems biology approach is used to obtain mechanistic insights and a genome-wide view on the responses to chemical compounds relevant in Environmental Health, Pharmacology and Biotechnology and to characterize new signalling pathways and gene regulatory networks under chemical stress. In the field of molecular and cellular biology of yeasts, her research is focused on: i) the regulation of gene and genomic expression under stress; ii) transmembrane transport, in particular the functional analysis of drug/xenobiotic efflux pumps of the MFS and ABC superfamily and their role in cell defense, multidrug resistance (MDR) and impact in industrial and environmental biotecnology.
The group of Ulrich Stelzl focuses on the analysis of molecular interaction networks with the aim to understand the dynamics of molecular networks underlying cellular processes related to human disease. Experimental functional genomics techniques, e.g. HTP Y2H screening, are utilized in combination with biochemical, cell biological and computational methods. In combination with mammalian cell culture and in silico work, yeast is used as a model and serves as the main tool for versatile screening approaches.
The research of Tobias Madl and his group focuses on integrated structural biology of signal transduction and metabolism. One of his major interests is the general molecular mechanisms of signal transfer mediated by disordered proteins and the intricate link between their function, regulation and human diseases. To obtain systemic insight into regulatory pathways and for translational studies, they use and develop NMR-based metabolic phenotyping.