Microverse Professors

During the first funding phase of the Excellence Strategy, four Microverse Core Professorships were appointed in 2021 and 2023.

Theoretical Microbial Ecology

Rosalind Allen

Understanding how bacteria grow, survive and die in different environments can fundamentally change the way bacterial infections are fought.

It's important to use antibiotics intelligently, because too many wrong treatments can lead to resistance.

Rosalind Allen is Professor of Theoretical Microbial Ecology at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and is part of the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse".

Viral Ecology and Omics

Bas E. Dutilh

Viruses play a major role in the dynamics and balance of the microverse, but only a small proportion has been discovered so far.

I don't know if this is exactly true, but it is estimated that there are 10 viruses for every microorganism. This shows how important it is to characterise these tiny, evolving particles in order to understand how they function and interact with their hosts.

Bas E. Dutilh is a Professor of Viral Ecology and Omics at the University of Jena and is part of the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse." He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in 2022.

Biostructural Interactions

Ute Hellmich

In order to fight infectious diseases effectively, they need to be understood as precisely as possible - right down to the molecular level.

We want to know how certain proteins interact with other molecules in the context of infections. And we want to investigate what such proteins look like at the atomic level and how they move, i.e. what their dynamics look like.

Ute Hellmich is Professor of Biostructural Interactions at the University of Jena and is part of the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse”.

Microbiome Dynamics

Gianni Panagiotou

Gianni Panagiotou researches microbial communities with a particular focus on the human gut microbiome.

We integrate microbiome, mycobiome and metaome data with biochemical and clinical data, construct high-end metabolic models at the genome level and apply machine learning methods to understand the dynamics between the host and its associated bacteria and fungi.

Gianni Panagiotou is Professor of Microbiome Dynamics at the University of Jena and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute and is part of the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse”.