News

In a very nice collaboration with the Seidel lab (Uni Leipzig), we analyzed the post-cleavage states of Cas9 from S. pyogenes using single-molecule force measurements answering finally the question why SpaCas9 is tightly associated with its target even after cleavage.
doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkab1072

We love single molecules: not only in form of proteins but also as single RNAs or DNAs.Here we set up single-molecule Nanopore sequencing of RNAs and DNAs to explore prokaryotic transcriptomes. We describe in detail preparation of samples, bioinformatic analysis and compare our data to other sequencing approaches. There is so much information from in single Nanopore sequencing run!
doi: 10.1261/rna.078937.121

We are happy to announce that we will be part of the new international PhD program “Future leaders in RNA medicine” funded by the Bavarian Elite Network (coordinated by Jörg Vogel, HIRI Würzburg). We will team up with groups from the University of Würzburg, TU Munich and LMU Munich to educate the next generation of RNA scientists.
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c: Peter Ferstl, Stadt Regensburg

c: Germann Popp

If you love Archaea you certainly know Harald Huber: among others, he discovered and studied the Ignicoccus-Nanoarchaeum symbiosis. This year, he taught the organismic lab course for the last time as he will retire in atumn. Good chance to surprise him with a golden microscope to honor his work as a devoted teacher!

c: Hermann Pentermann, Westenergie AG

The ORBIT biological methanation plant was officially put into feed-in operation by Federal Minister Anja Karliczek (Federal Ministry of Education and Research; BMBF) together with State Secretary Andreas Feicht (Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy; BMWi) and Harald Heß (Technical Manager of Westenergie AG) on October 23, 2020.

Many thanks to the whole ORBIT-team, namely the OTH Regensburg, FAU Nuremberg, Electrochaea, MicrobEnergy (Viessmann Group), MicroPyros BKB, Westenergie and DVGW, for successful cooperation and strong efforts to take the system from planning over lab scale to application within only 38 months!
 

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The Argonaute protein family is one of our favourite. In a feature in the journal Biospektrum, we report how our and the research of colleagues in the field contributed to a better understanding of the function and mechanisms of Argonaute proteins.

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Origami im Mikrokosmos: Wie man Gene in die Zange nimmt

Biolog:innen der Universität Regensburg zeigen, wie Proteine in unserem Zellkern zusammenarbeiten, damit unsere Gene effizient abgelesen werden.  see

Our next transcription story is published in Nature Communcations. Based on single-molecule force spectroscopy measurements employing a DNA origami force clamp, we demonstrate the synergy of initiaton factors in the Pol II and Pol III system to stabilize transcription initiation. This was a great interdisciplinary collaboration with the Tinnefeld lab, Liedl lab, Vannini lab, Berger lab and Engel lab.
https://tinyurl.com/y9ee6nvv

Welcome to Nicole Landgraf who starts her master theses in the Huberlab.

Welcome to Andreas Schmidbauer who starts his master thesis in the Grohmann lab.

Coronavirus crisis:
The opening times of buildings have been reduced and on-site face-to-face office hours of all kinds have been suspended.

Guest lecture by Simonetta Gribaldo, Unit "Evolutionary Biology of the Microbial Cell", Institut Pasteur, Paris (invited by Linda Dengler, Rigel gradiated school).

Symposium

Press release of the University in terms of Re-Opening of the Archaea Fermentation Facility.

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Symposium

The Biology and Biotechnological Application of Archaea & Re-Opening of the Archaea Fermentation Facility.

26./27. September 2019

see programm

Local press puplishes an interview about the reopening of our biotechnicum.. (only in german language)

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Welcome to Alexander Mäuerl, who starts his master theses in the Grohman lab under the direction of Robert Reichelt.

In this review published in Journal of Molecular Biology, we discuss single-molecule approaches suitable to examine molecular mechanisms of transcription and highlight findings that shaped our understanding of the archaeal transcription apparatus. We furthermore explore the possibilities and challenges of next-generation single-molecule techniques, for example, super-resolution microscopy and single-molecule tracking, and ask whether these approaches will ultimately allow us to investigate archaeal transcription in vivo.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article
/pii/S0022283619303717

Recently, an interdisciplinary group of researchers, in which our PhD student Daniel Eckl is involved, published a field study in two hospitals where they showed that newly developed photodynamic coatings are capable of reducing the number of bacteria on near-patient surfaces.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2019.07.016

Celebration of the retirement of Renate Richau. Many thanks for 20 years on honorable and fruitful collaboration in the development and continuous operation of the archael center in Regensburg.

Welcome to Simon Dechant who starts as a technician in the archaea center.

The joint project ORBIT reached an important milestone: at a news conference at the OTH Regensburg, the trickle-bed bioreactor of the project was initially operated by inoculation with methanogenic archaea. Aim of this innovative research facility is to produce “green methane” out of power from renewable energies. During the next year, Andrea Böllmann and Annett Bellack will analyze and optimize the efficiency of the microorganisms to produce high-quality methane, which should be directly fed into the gas grid in the next step of the project.

Congratulation to Andreas Schmidbauer who received a scholar ship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

Congratulations to Linda Dengler who became speaker of the RIGeL Graduate Colloquium. This group regularly invites international guest speakers to give scientific talks and to discuss their results with RIGeL PhD students.

Congratulations to Linda Dengler who received a travel and research grant for a field trip to Costa Rica by the International PhD Program at Universität Regensburg (iPUR). This grant enabled her to sign research and collection permits that meet the Nagoya protocol and to collect new environmental samples for her PhD thesis.

The most conserved initiation factor is the TATA-binding protein (TBP), which is of crucial importance for all archaeal-eukaryotic transcriptioninitiation complexes. Recent structural, biochemical and genome-wide mapping data showed that the functional importance of TBP in the RNAP I system is divergent from the canonical role TBP plays in RNAPII transcription. Here, we review the role of TBP in the different transcription systems including a TBP-centric discussion of archaeal andeukaryotic initiation complexes.

http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/content/early/2019/01
/31/BST20180623

Guest lecture by Tobias Warnecke, Molecular Systems Group, MRC London Institure of Medical Sciences & Imperial Collage London (invited by Prof. Dina Grohmann)

We are grieving for our colleague and friend Reinhard Wirth who passed away on 3 January 2019. His untimely death cames as a shock to us.

Reinhard Wirth accepted a call to the University of Regensburg in 1994 and was a passionate scientist and teacher. Reinhard Wirth's research focused - among others - on gene transfer in and mobility of Archaea. He also isolated and characterised a number of new archaeal strains. In 2017 Reinhard retired and looked back at his career in his farewell lecture (see https://mediathek.uni-
regensburg.de/playthis/5954f045ce6a82.97432830). Since 2017, he dedicated himself to translate "the Brock" - the standard reference work for Microbiologist - into German.

Reinhard Wirth will be greatly missed and we will always remember Reinhard Wirth as a friend, mentor and colleague.