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Germ-free and microbiota-associated mice yield intestinal organoids with robust transcriptome/proteome phenotypes
Intestinal organoids derive from stem cells isolated from the mucosa. It remained unclear how microbiota exposure of those stem cells influences organoid phenotypes. In a recent study from the Hardt lab, Annika Hausmann et al. address whether littermate control organoids are needed and how well organoids represent their tissue of origin, in comparison to cell lines.
Finding new sources for bioactive compounds by genome mining of unique enzymology
A new "Angewandte Chemie" paper by the Piel and Fraaije (Groningen) groups introduces an approach to prioritize biosynthetic pathways rich in unique oxidation domains to identify culturable bacterial sources for natural products and enzymes from the complex class of trans-AT polyketide synthases.
Pfizer Prize for Research 2020 awarded to Daniela Latorre
Daniela Latorre, SNSF PRIMA group leader at the Institute of Microbiology of the Department of Biology, was awarded the Pfizer Prize for Research 2020 as one of 19 young researchers.
A metabolic view of the bacterial cell cycle
Cell cycle progression is a fundamental metabolic challenge. In a Nature Metabolism paper, the Vorholt lab determined how different cell cycle stages impact metabolism, and how glutathione deficiency perturbs cell division in a bacterium.