JSMC Newsletter 2021/02
This year unfortunately seems to end like the last one and still corona has us in its grip, so that we unfortunately had to cancel our end-of-the-year screening at the Planetarium. But we wish you a lot of fun reading the newsletter and of course a merry Christmas and relaxed holidays to all of you.
Featured Events
Below, please find a small selection of upcoming events. A complete and up-to-date list is available in the Event Calendar on the JSMC website. All courses are open to all JSMC PhD researchers. Course registration follows the first-come, first-served rule.
December 7, 2021, 14:00
Welcome for Postdoctoral Researchers
Organised by the Graduate Academy Jena
Location: online
December 8, 2021, 16:00
Microbial Communication Colloquium: Mechanistic Principles of Assembly-Line Polyketide Biosynthesis
Lecturer: Prof. Chaitan Khosla, Department Chemical Engineering at Stanford University
Location: online
December 13, 2021, 17:00
IMPRS Basic Lecture: Microbial symbioses as driving forces of evolutionary innovation in insects
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Martin Kaltenpoth, MPI-CE
Location: online
January 12, 2022, 16:00
Microbial Communication Colloquium: tba
Lecturer: Associate Prof. Dr. Britt Koskella, Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley
Location: online
January 20, 2022, 11:00 – 16:00
PhD Day 2022
On Thursday, 20 January 2022, the PhD Day at Friedrich Schiller University Jena takes place as a hybrid online event. The day aims at providing interested in a doctorate and doctoral candidates with an opportunity to catch up on important subjects and offers for the PhD phase.
Further information can be found here: www.uni-jena.de/en/phd_day
January 24 – February 4, 2022, 9:00 -11:00
Jena Alliance course: Career Planning - Intensive course
Lecturer: Dr. Iris Köhler
Location: online
January 27 - 28, 2022, 17:00
IMPRS course: Plant transformation workshop
Lecturer: Axel Schmidt, Maricel Santoro, Lorenzo Caputi
Location: online
News from the JSMC Community
Mental Health Action Week - Resume
This year for the first time the Student Health Management, together with the Workplace Health Management and the Mental Health First Aid Team of the University of Jena was organising a joint action week "Mental Health". The lectures and workshops were aimed at students and employees. This included a workshop for group leaders on how to support the mental health of their team members that was sponsored by JSMC and several of our faculty members attended. In addition, Prof. Martin Walter of the UKJ presented the plans of the new German Center for Mental Health research, highlighting its activities in Jena and future plans to investigate the role of microbiomes in mental illness in collaboration with members of the JSMC, HKI and the Cluster “Balance of the Microverse”. We hope that you were able to take away something useful and interesting for yourself by participating in the events.
Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the exhibition "Pictures of my Depression" by Jenny Kleine in the Mensa on Ernst-Abbe-Platz. It is placed directly at the foyer windows until December 17, 2021, so that the impressive pictures and texts can be viewed from outside.
Looking for volunteers to deliver short lectures on “Scientific Visualisation” for students of the Bauhaus University
We are looking for doctoral researcher and post-doc volunteers to deliver short presentations (~ 30 min) on scientific visualisation to be part of the "Space for Visual Research" course at the Bauhaus University Weimar. This course is attended by Bsc and MSc students in Visual Communication and Media Arts.
Specifically, we are looking for presentations about tools, methodology and outputs of scientific visualisation, rather than the specific research questions behind it. We would like to cover a range of scientific visualisation platforms, so anything from microscopy and photography to molecular structure elucidation and statistical data analysis with graphical output (heatmaps, metabolic/interaction networks, PCAs, histograms/ data transformation etc) can be included. The presentation will be followed by a discussion with the Bauhaus University students.
When? Each Thursday, 10:00 – 12:00, starting in January 2022
Where? Bauhaus University, Weimar/Online
If you are interested in taking part in this interdisciplinary Arts & Science initiative and in presenting your methods to an audience that might look at it from a very different perspective, then please email hendrik.huthoff@uni-jena.de with a brief summary of your proposed contribution.
Your Research in the GoetheGalerie? - Call for pictures!
LIFE goes Goethe Galerie! The profile line plans an exhibition in Jena's biggest shopping mall in summer 2022.
You have a great picture that shows part of your research? A microscopic image, a photography, a visulization? Then send it to franziska.eberl@uni-jena.de. We're looking forward!
Reminder: Career Orientation Grants
We would like to remind you of the travel and post-doctoral grants that are available to outstanding graduates of the JSMC. These grants aim to provide support at the challenging stage directly following the PhD. There are two grant shemes and it is possible to apply for half-year Postdoctoral Scholarships or for grants for International Laboratory Visits.
Applications are possible for all JSMC Doctoral Researchers and they can be submitted in the time frame between the date of submission of the PhD thesis and up to 4 months after the date of the PhD defense.
An application is possible at any time.
Further info: https://www.jsmc-phd.de/grants.html
JSMC Newcomers 2021
There have been some JSMC newcomers this year. We want to take this opportunity to introduce and welcome them to the JSMC!
Parastoo Akbarimoghaddam
Is supervised by Prof. Figge (HKI). She started her research on “Quantitative Analysis of Microbial Dynamics in Organ-on-Chip Models” at the department “Applied Systems Biology“ (HKI) in September 2021.
Xiuqiang Chen
Started his research in July 2021 in the department “Systems Biology and Bioinformatics“ at the HKI. His project is “Microbiota-driven risk assessment, prevention and clearance of invasive aspergillosis” under the supervision of Prof. Panagiotou (HKI).
Jonathan Hammer
Joined the group Microbial Interactions (FSU) in October 2021. He has chosen to investigate microbial interactions that influence the balance of large plankton communities in the oceans under the supervision of Prof. Jogler (FSU) and Dr. Schubert (FSU).
Kerstin Unger
Is supervised by Dr. Agler (FSU) and Prof. Kothe (FSU). She started her research on “Pathogenicity factors as public goods - rethinking the role of “pathogens” in beneficial plant microbiomes” in the group “Plant Microbiosis” (FSU) in July 2021.
Liubov Nikitashina
Started her research in June 2021 at the department of Molecular and Applied Microbiology (HKI). Her project is “Microbiota-driven risk assessment, prevention and clearance of invasive aspergillosis” under the supervision of Prof. Brakhage (HKI) and Prof. Jacobsen (HKI).
Ailton Pereira da Costa Filho
Joined the Junior Research Group on Fungal Informatics (HKI) in August 2021. He is supervised by Dr. Barber (HKI) and Prof. Panagiotou (HKI) and works on the project “Identification of fungal-bacterial interactions in the environment that shape human pathogenicity in fungi”.
Jasmin Frangenberg
Is supervised by Dr. Stallforth (HKI) and Prof. Papenfort (FSU). She started her research on “Evolutionary Analysis of Antimicrobial Resistance and Natural Product Biosynthesis Based on Ancient DNA” at the department Paleobiotechnology (HKI) in October 2020.
Merle Hammer
Started her research in October 2021 at the department of Microbioal Immunology (HKI). Her project is “Impact of dietary factors on Candida albicans colonization” under the supervision of Prof. Jacobsen (HKI) and Berit Jungnickel (FSU).
Janine Otto
Joined the Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the FSU in October 2021. She is supervised by Prof. Pohnert (FSU) and Prof. Bauer (UKJ) and works on the project “Mass Spectrometry as Fast Tool for the Comparative DNA Methylome Analysis”.
Vera Nikitashina
Started her research in April 2021 at the Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry (FSU). Her project is “Mechanisms of metabolic interactions in photosymbiotic systems” under the supervision of Prof. Pohnert (FSU) Prof. Mittag (FSU).
Xiaoqing Pan
Is supervised by Dr. Blango (HKI) and Prof. Papenfort (FSU). She started her research on “The role of RNA structure in fungal pathogenesis” at the research group “RNA Biology of Fungal Infections“ (HKI) in June 2021.
Victor Hugo Pérez Carrillo
Started his research in May 2021 in the institute of Biostructural Interactions at the FSU. His project is “Dynamics of bacterial ABC transporters” under the supervision of Prof. Hellmich (FSU) and Prof. Werz (FSU).
Arjun Sakar
Joined the department for Applied Systems Biology at the HKI in June 2021. He is supervised by Prof. Figge (HKI) and Prof. Rosenbaum (HKI) and works on the project “Automated Processing of Biomedical Images in Infection Research”.
New Doctors 2021
We would like congratulate all new doctors on their successful graduation and wish them all the best for the future.
Qianqian Li
Thesis title: Chemical communication between bacteria in iron-rich lake aggregates
Nathalie Stefanie
Thesis title: Adhäsionsmechanismen von Escherichia coli auf Titanoberflächen
Alessandra Marolda
Thesis title: Characterizing innate immune cell activation by fungal pathogens
Felicia Stanford
Thesis title: Adaptive traits as mediators of stress response and virulence in Lichtheimia corymbifera
Sofia Siscar Lewin
Thesis title: Host adaptation, avirulence and antivirulence genes of Candida glabrata
Luis Pena Ortiz
Thesis title: Discovery and biosynthesis of the redox cofactor mycofactocin
Career, Funding and Information
The Cluster Balance of the Microverse offer a position for a scientific coordinator
The Cluster Management Office is looking for a scientific coordinator within the Cluster of Excellence. The position will combine diverse duties supporting the Cluster Management in the Cluster organisation to provide the optimal environment for excellent research e.g. development of research strategies, preparation of scientific events, grant proposal writing and implementation of the Cluster`s International Scientists Exchange Program.
This and other positions can be found here: https://www.microverse-cluster.de/en/jobs.html
Profile line LIFE “Connect”-Funds
The LIFE “Connect” funds enable the development of scientific projects that will build the basis for a larger research grant application for third-party funding. The funds provided shall establish cooperation between researchers of different groups, institutes and disciplines to stimulate top-level research within the profile line LIFE and beyond. All topics within the focal research areas of LIFE are eligible. Interdisciplinarity is encouraged, but not required. A collaborative character of the projects is essential, and establishing and extending connections to new cooperation partners is expected.
Further info on each fund can be found here: https://www.uni-jena.de/en/research/research+profile/profile+line+life/current+advertisements
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→ send them to office@jsmc.info!