Junior Professorship Synthetic Biology of Photosynthetic Organisms
Welcome to the website of the junior professorship of synthetic biology of photosynthetic organisms at the Matthias Schleiden Institute!
photosynthetic microbes
Our research focuses on developing and utilising synthetic biology principles to improve photosynthetic cell factories. Our interest is to advance photosynthetic host chassis as a sustainable alternative towards biotechnological applications. To achieve this, we are using metabolic and genetic engineering techniques as well as molecular biology and biochemical methods. We are mainly working with various different cyanobacteria and at occassion with eukaryotic algae. Apart from their plethora of proposed applications, we are also interested in unravelling fundamental cell biological processes (such as protein trafficking). Additionally, we want to gain more insights into the processing of environmental signals in co-cultures and communities of these organisms.
On this website you can find news and information about research and teaching in the group.
News About the Group
January, 5th 2026: We are very pleased that the year has stared off well - our paper on betaxanthin pigment biosynthesis in cyanobacteria led by Sayali is now published in Metabolic Engineering. Check it out hereExternal link.
2025
PhD Defense Sayali December 2025
Image: SH- 1. December 2025: Today our PhD student Sayali successfully defended her PhD. Congratulations Sayali! We are very happy that she will stick around as a Postdoc with us for a little longer.
- November 2025: Julie Zedler was officially confirmed to suceed Prof. Günter Theißen as the degree responsible of the Master programme Master Molecular Life Sciences. Please direct any inquiries regarding the degree to mmls@uni-jena.de from now on.
- 29. October 2025: After beginning of the new term, it is time for our yearly pumpkin carving. By now, this is an established group tradition. We are happy that also Genetics and Plant Physiology joined us again this year – so many pretty and scary pumpkins. Happy Halloween!
Pumpkin Carving 2025
Image: DR- October 2025: We are very pleased to here that both our Hiwis Catherin and Jonathan decided to stay in the group for their master thesis and congratulate our Bachelor student Sophie to handing in her thesis!
- August 2025: We are very happy that our endoproteomics paper in cyanobacteria led by David Russo has now been published in Plant Physiology. Check it out hereExternal link.
- July 2025: This month we welcome a new member to the group: Catherin will support Sayali. Welcome!
- 27. June 2025: Today we celebrated the many good news of the last months. The tenure report for this junior professorship was sbumitted yesterday - now we hope that our joint hard work of the last 6 years will be positively evaluated. ...to be continued!
Group Get Together June 2025
Image: Marek G- 19. June 2025: Sayali has handed in her PhD thesis - congratulations! We are happy that she will stay with us working on our Exploration Grant Project Funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation.
- 17. June 2025: new preprint alert! Check out our work on Betaxanthin biosynthesis in cyanobacteria lead by our PhD student Sayali hereExternal link.
- 16. June 2025: Our MSc student Jonathan was admitted to the Honours Programme for future researchs (2025) at FSU Jena – congratulations!
- 2. June 2025: Our study on various heterologous pathways for the biosynthesis of ketocarotenoids (canthaxanthin, astaxanthin) in cyanobacteria is now published in Sustainable Microbiology. You can read it here: DOI:10.1093/sumbio/qvaf008External link Thank you to all the co-authors that contributed to this work and congratulations to our alumni Anika (MSc student) and Dennis (BSc Student), who carried the most workload of this paper!
- May 2025: This month, Sophie has started her BSc thesis with us. We are happy to keep her after being a student assistant in our group. We also have Jonathan joining us. He will be working on a joint project with Plant Physiology we are very excited about. Welcome to the group!
- April 2025: Sayali and Miriam attended the "First International Congress on Algal Biotechnology" in Lisbon and presented their work in an oral and a poster presentation coming back with many positive impressions and memories.
- 8. March 2025: The studyExternal link "Competition and interdependence define interactions of Nostoc sp. and Agrobacterium sp. under inorganic carbon limitation" from Prof. Elke Dittmanns Lab is now published in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes. We are happy to have contributed the proteomics to this exciting work, excellent cooperation within ChemBioSys!External link
- 2. March 2025: Our work on improving plant cytochrome P450 expression in cyanobacteria using a fusion protein engineering approach lead by our PhD student Sayali has been published in ACS Synthetic Biology. You can find it here: DOI:org/10.1021/acssynbio.4c00800External link.
- 26. February 2025: We are very proud of our PhD student Sayali! She won both, the jury and the public vote at the annual "Three Minute Thesis" Competition at FSU Jena – Congratulations! You can find more information here.
Group Activity January 2025
Image: DAR- 28. January 2025: today Dr. Arthur Guljamow (University of Potsdam) visited us here in Jena and gave a talk at our institute seminar. It was great to hear about so many different aspects of natural product research in cyanobacteria and discuss some science with him.
- 16. January 2025: It was about time to escape allday lab duties and do something social together with Plant Physiology! This time we tested our communal problem-solving skills in an Escape Room.
- 14. January 2025: Today we had Prof. Cheryl Kerfeld (Michigan State University, Lawrence National Berkeley Lab) visiting us. She came all the way from California to talk to us about her latest research on Bacterial Microcompartments. Thanks for visiting Jena and for a great science chat on BMCs and beyond.
- January 2025: We had a fresh headstart to the year with another new addition to the team: Carlos has joined us directly from the Philippines and our PhD student Sayali is back from her internship to finish up her PhD thesis. Welcome (back) to Jena!
Where can you find us?
Synthetic Biology of Photosynthetic Organisms
Philosophenweg 12
07743 Jena
Google Maps site planExternal link
Postal address:
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Matthias Schleiden Institute
Synthetic Biology of Photosynthetic Organisms
Philosophenweg 12
07743 Jena
Germany