Newsletter

Year-End Highlights: Awards, Science & Celebration with the Microverse Community!

As we approach the year's end, the Microverse Cluster invites you to join us for a series of engaging activities, awards, and festive gatherings!

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• Apply or nominate a colleague for the Microverse Science Communication and Early Career Scientist Awards 2024 – a chance to spotlight impactful research and public engagement. The deadline is November 29, 2024.
• Don't miss our Science Event during the Long Night of Sciences at the Zeiss Planetarium Jena on November 22, 2024, 6 pm to 0 am, where you can explore the fascinating world of microbes through hands-on show-experiments and a screening of KARL and KARLA im Mikroversum. Spread the word!
• Join us also for the JEMS Winter Semester Lectures, starting on November 27, 2024, from 1 pm, with a talk by Alfred Spormann at the Leibniz-HKI, bringing together leading minds in microbiology.
• To top it all off, celebrate the season at our Microverse Christmas Party on December 11, 2024, at Kulturbahnhof Jena. Register by November 22, 2024, and contribute to the evening by sharing your ideas or volunteering.

Let’s end the year with knowledge, connections, and celebration – see you!

The Microverse Team after the defence in Bonn.

It's time to keep your fingers crossed!

The defence of our renewal proposal in the Excellence Strategy took place last Friday, 15 November, in Bonn.

Huge thanks you to the team for the incredible cooperation during this journey and the great preparation! – The final decision is expected in May 2025.

REMINDER: Microverse Science Communication and Early Career Scientist Awards 2024

Deadline for both Callls: November 29, 2024

"Balance of the Microverse" invites applications for two prestigious awards celebrating excellence in science communication and early career research!

• The Microverse Science Communication Award recognizes outstanding efforts in making our research accessible to a broad audience. Applicants are encouraged to submit innovative projects, such as articles, blogs, podcasts, or public engagement events that highlight the relevance of microbial communication in environmental and human health. The goal is to bridge the gap between science and the public by fostering understanding and engagement with the microbiome's role in ecosystems and society.
• The Microverse Early Career Scientist Award aims to honor outstanding early career scientists for their achievements and significant contributions to the mission of the Microverse Cluster. With this award we want to recognize significant publications, excellent research achievements, major method advancements, transfer activities and entrepreneurship … or other outstanding contributions. All Microverse researchers are invited to nominate early career scientists for the award. Self‐nomination of early career scientists is also possible.

Find out more about the calls here!

Lectures as part of the JEMS in the winter semester 2024/25

The Jena Excellence in Microbiology Seminar (JEMS) series brings together leading researchers and enthusiasts in the field of microbiology, fostering innovation and collaboration through expert-led talks and discussions.

• Wednesday, November 27, 2024 | Leibniz-HKI Seminar Room Koch/Pasteur at 13:00; Coffee at 12:45
  Alfred Spormann
  Standford University and Aarhus University
  "Cellular Resource Allocation in CO₂-metabolizing Microbes"

• Monday, December 9, 2024 | Leibniz-HKI Seminar Room Koch/Pasteur at 13:00; Coffee at 12:45
  Iqbal Hamza
  University of Maryland

• Monday, January 13, 2025 | Leibniz-HKI Seminar Room Koch/Pasteur at 13:00; Coffee at 12:45
  Ricarda Winkelmann
  Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research & Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Jena

Join the "Balance of the Microverse" Christmas Party!

Get ready to celebrate the festive season with us at the Balance of the Microverse’s ultimate Christmas Party! Mark your calendar for December 11, 2024, starting at 5 pm, at the Kulturbahnhof Jena. This is a perfect chance to connect, have fun, and create memorable moments with fellow community members.

Save the Date and Register:
To make sure you’re part of the festivities, please register by November 22, 2024, using this link: Registration.

Share Your Ideas or Volunteer:
We’re eager for your input! If you have exciting ideas or want to help make the event special, we’d love to hear from you. From organizing an activity (like a Christmas quiz or table tennis tournament) to helping with decorations or even DJing, every contribution will add to the magic of the evening. Interested? Sign up with your suggestions or preferred tasks at our Task Signup.

We can’t wait to celebrate with you.

KARL und KARLA im Mikroversum, Photo: Tina Peißker

Long Night of Sciences: Science Event at the Planetarium - Discover the fascinating world of microbes!

November 20, 2024 | 6 pm – 0 am | Zeiss Planetary Jena

Discover the fascinating world of microbes at our special science event as part of the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften (LNDW). The Microverse Cluster invites you to a science spectacle at the Zeiss Planetarium Jena that brings the hidden world of microbes to life.

The event is aimed at all age groups from 11 to 99 and conveys the importance of microorganisms for our daily lives and the environment.
Entertainer Jack Pop leads through a varied program with interactive show experiments that make the diversity of microbes visible and illustrate the role of bacteria, for example in power generation. The highlight of the event is the award-winning film „KARL und KARLA im Mikroversum“.

• Film Screening (German) as part of the Science Event: 9.30 – 10.30 pm
• Film Screening (English): 11.15 – 11.30 pm

Further events

• November 25 – 26, 2024 | Paradiescafé (Vor dem Neutor 5, 07743 Jena)
  Sharing Symposium
  Further Information
• November 25, 2024 | 3:30 – 5:30 pm | Leibniz-HKI Nucleus Cafe
  Science Meets Society Roundtable - Homo Deus from Yuval Noah Harari
• November 2024 | 5 p.m. | Lecturehall  Abbe-Zentrums Beutenberg, Hans-Knöll-Str. 1
  "Noble Gespräche" with Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Thomas C. G. Bosch (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel)
  "Wie entschlüsselt man Unsterblichkeit? - Hydra in Zeiten der Metaorganismus-Forschung"
  Find out more here
• December 4, 2024 | 3:30 – 5:30 pm | Carl-Zeiss-Promenade 2, 07745 Jena
  Employers' forum "Meet your future Employer!"
  Further Information

Illustration for the #climatechallenge - Transformative educational programme for effective climate protection - Illustration: Germanwatch e.V. | Illustration: Holly McKelvey

#climatechallenge: From footprint to handprint

Join the #climatechallenge this winter semester! The Green Office is hosting a three-part interactive workshop series on climate change and climate justice. Open to all university members, it's a great opportunity to connect, learn, and drive sustainability efforts on campus. The workshops will be held in German, and more details, including registration, are available on this website.

The workshops will take place on:

• Thursday, November 14, 2024, 1:00 – 5:00 pm (tentative)
• Tuesday, December 10, 2024, afternoon
• Tuesday, January 14, 2025, afternoon

If you have any questions, the Green Office team is happy to help at nachhaltigkeit@uni-jena.de.

Selected Microverse Publications

• Kaden T,  Alonso-Román R, Stallhofer J, Gresnigt MS, Hube B, Mosig, AS (2024) Leveraging Organ-on-Chip Models to Investigate Host-Microbiota Dynamics and Targeted Therapies for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Advanced healthcare materials, e2402756.
• Janevska S, Weiser S, Huang Y, Lin J, Hoefgen S, Jojić K, Barber AE, Schäfer T, Fricke J, Hoffmeister D, Regestein L, Valiante V,  Kufs JE (2024). Optimized psilocybin production in tryptophan catabolism-repressed fungi. Microbial biotechnology, 17(11), e70039.
• Unger K, Raza SAK, Mayer T, Reichelt M, Stuttmann J, Hielscher A, Wittstock U, Gershenzon J, Agler MT (2024). Glucosinolate structural diversity shapes recruitment of a metabolic network of leaf-associated bacteria. Nature communications, 15(1), 8496.
• Wurzbacher CE, Hammer J, Haufschild T, Wiegand S, Kallscheuer N, Jogler C (2024). "Candidatus Uabimicrobium helgolandensis"-a planctomycetal bacterium with phagocytosis-like prey cell engulfment, surface-dependent motility, and cell division. mBio, 15(10), e0204424.
• Deng Y, Yu R, Grabe V, Sommermann T, Werner M, Vallet M, Zerfaß C, Werz O, Pohnert G (2024). Bacteria modulate microalgal aging physiology through the induction of extracellular vesicle production to remove harmful metabolites. Nature microbiology, 9(9), 2356–2368.
• Hupatz H, Rahu I, Wang WC, Peets P, Palm EH, Kruve A. (2024). Critical review on in silico methods for structural annotation of chemicals detected with LC/HRMS non-targeted screening. Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, 10.1007/s00216-024-05471-x.
• Triebel S, Lamkiewicz K, Ontiveros N, Sweeney B, Stadler PF, Petrov AI, Niepmann M, Marz M (2024). Comprehensive survey of conserved RNA secondary structures in full-genome alignment of Hepatitis C virus. Scientific reports, 14(1), 15145.
• Bierhoff H, Barber AE, Blango MG (2024) RNA:DNA triplexes: a mechanism for epigenetic communication between hosts and microbes? mBio 15:e01982-24.
• Dörner S, Trottmann F, Jordan PM, Rogge K, Bartels B, Werz O, Hertweck C, Hoffmeister D (2024) The fatal mushroom neurotoxin muscarine is released from a harmless phosphorylated precursor upon cellular injury. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2024, e202417220.
• Speth DR, Zeller, LM, Graf JS, Overholt WA, Küsel K, Milucka J (2024) Genetic potential for aerobic respiration and denitrification in globally distributed respiratory endosymbionts. Nature Communications 15, 9682.

All publications