Microbial Pathogenicity Mechanisms

What drives women in science — and how do they drive science forward? 🔬🚀

Great to see that @microverse.bsky.social has captured and shared the voices of women scientists for #InternationalDayOfWomenAndGirlsInScience, including colleagues from our institute.

Check out our newest publication with @garymoran.bsky.social and Derek Sullivan in @microbiologysociety.org!
Together, we investigated the individual roles of the TLO gene family members for Candida albicans' virulence. 🔬🧬🧫

👉 www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

@leibniz-hki.de

Don't miss Bernie's #MycoTalk!

✨️🎄 Wrapping up the year with our Christmas party! Thanks to @aps-hki.bsky.social and @sarsarela.bsky.social for celebrating with us! 🎁
Thanks to everyone who made 2025 such a great year of research and collaboration! Wishing you all happy holidays and a restful break! ✨️🫶
@leibniz-hki.de

A woman in a white lab coat and blue gloves works at a lab bench, smiling as she uses a pipette to transfer liquid into a small tube. Colorful laboratory containers and equipment are arranged in front of her, and another person works in the background.

Funded PhD position 3/9: Investigate how Candida albicans lipases shape fungal-bacterial interactions & benefit from the PhD training program ILRS 2.0. Apply by 13 Dec.
🎓 lmy.de/VyUor

#PhDOpportunity #ScienceJobs #LeibnizHKI

A woman sits at a desk with two computer monitors, focused on her work in a bright office; a blurred screen with a scientific graphic is visible in the foreground.

Funded PhD position 4/9: Advance image quantification of organ-on-chip-based experiments within JIPipe & benefit from the PhD training program ILRS 2.0.
Apply by 13 Dec.
🎓 lmy.de/tSJYf

#PhDOpportunity #ScienceJobs #LeibnizHKI

A young woman with curly reddish-brown hair stands by a staircase railing in a modern building. She is wearing a long yellow pleated skirt, a black top, and black boots. She is holding several notebooks or books in her arms and is smiling gently at the camera.

Graphic design image with a blue-to-purple gradient background. The word ‘NOVEMBER’ appears at the top in bold orange letters, followed by the name ‘Sophia Hitzler’ in large purple text. Below, in smaller black text, it reads ‘Leibniz-HKI Calendar 2025.’ The word ‘SWIPE’ is written in bold black letters next to a yellow arrow pointing to the right. The Leibniz-HKI logo is placed in the bottom left corner.

A woman with curly reddish-brown hair is working in a laboratory. She is wearing a white lab coat and blue gloves and is examining a transparent bottle filled with liquid. In the background, another person in a lab coat is seated at a workstation. The room is bright and equipped with typical laboratory instruments.

A person with curly hair, wearing a black top and a long yellow skirt, stands on an indoor staircase holding books and looking upward with a smile. A colorful speech bubble above reads: ‘It’s especially fun to introduce young people to science and see how curiosity develops.’ The logo ‘LEIBNIZ-HKI’ appears in the bottom left.

Meet our #November feature Sophia Hitzler, a doctoral researcher at Leibniz-HKI, in this year’s #calendar 2025! From a fascination with fungi 🍄 to mentoring 👩‍🏫 and an unexpected dream job 🐳, discover her journey here: lmy.de/sBQAV

#FacesOfScience #LeibnizHKI

@aps-hki.bsky.social

Portrait of Prof. Axel Brakhage with short white hair, glasses, and a dark blazer over a patterned shirt. He is centered against a dark background with flowing green lines. In the upper right corner are the green Spotify logo and a white Deezer logo with a heart graphic.

🎙️ For #WAAW, our Director Axel Brakhage joins the German podcast “Contagious Enthusiasm” to discuss natural products in antibiotic development, the need of innovative #AMR strategies & the challenging conditions for researchers. lmy.de/EWdVZ

🎧 Spotify: lmy.de/bsezx
🎧 Deezer: lmy.de/Jzccq

A woman and a man wearing white lab coats sit together at a desk in a bright office, looking at a laptop screen. The woman is smiling and gesturing toward the laptop as they discuss the information displayed.

Funded PhD position 1/9: Explore RNA modification by natural products across species & benefit from the PhD training program ILRS 2.0.
Apply by 13 Dec.

🎓 lmy.de/szeVW

#PhDOpportunity #ScienceJobs #LeibnizHKI

A man and a woman in white lab coats sit at a computer in a bright laboratory. The man, wearing blue gloves, smiles and points at the monitor while the woman beside him also smiles, watching the screen.

Funded PhD position 2/9: Study neutrophil extracellular vesicles as a key defense mechanism against Aspergillus fumigatus & benefit from the PhD training program ILRS 2.0. Apply by 13 Dec.
🎓 lmy.de/yisip

#PhDOpportunity #ScienceJobs #LeibnizHKI

Commensalism and pathogenesis of Candida albicans at the mucosal interface Nature Reviews Microbiology - In this Review, Hube and colleagues overview the commensal and pathogenic lifestyles of Candida albicans, focusing on how the fungus transitions between these two...

Commensalism and pathogenesis of #Candida albicans at the mucosal interface rdcu.be/eia8o

Gender differences in audience participation at infectious disease and microbiology conferences: a prospective observational study In medicine, women constitute a large proportion of the workforce but remain underrepresented in senior positions. Scientific conferences, critical for career advancement, reflect these inequities, wi...

www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.org/article/S119...

📖 Perfect weekend reading for fungal fans! 😉 Our @mpm-hki.bsky.social colleagues uncover how #CandidaAlbicans manages to invade tissue as hyphae but spread as yeast. Published in @femsjournals.bsky.social.

🧑🏻‍🔬: @jlspragu.bsky.social

Christine Vogler, Equal Opportunities Officer at Leibniz-HKI, accepted the TOTAL E-QUALITY award and the Sustainability Award.

🎉 #LeibnizHKI has again been honored with the TOTAL E-QUALITY rating for our equal-opportunities personnel policy – for the 5th time in a row! This year, we also received the Sustainability Prize 2025 for our long-term commitment to equality, diversity & inclusion.

🗞️✨ lmy.de/zVSiL

#TotalEquality

Check out @jlspragu.bsky.social latest paper!
@leibniz-hki.de

“Pour some sugar on me”—Environmental Candida albicans isolates and the evolution of increased pathogenicity and antifungal resistance through sugar adaptation Author summary In this study, we set out to understand whether Candida albicans found in nature can be as dangerous as the strains collected from patients, and whether a diet high in sugar affects the...

Check out another brand-new publication by our EXIT members Theresa Lange, Bernhard Hube, and Sascha Brunke, together with additional co-authors, on #Candidaalbicans in PLOS Pathogens: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

🎉 We warmly congratulate Dr Alexander Mosig on his new professorship for Alternative Methods to Animal Testing in Infection & Inflammation Research at #JenaUniversityHospital! From Jan 2026, he’ll also join our Cluster to share expertise in #OrganOnChip and infection research.

A great turnout for our latest Microverse Seminar! 🍕🔬

@ameliabarberphd.bsky.social, Junior Group Leader #FungalInformatics, shared fascinating insights in her talk “From Ecology to Genomes: Unraveling Fungal Pathogenicity Across Scales.”

Lively discussions and great connections followed!

We proudly present:
the 2025 Halloween Lab Pumpkin Carving Edition!!! 😁🥳👻

YouTube video by Universität Jena THREE QUESTIONS FOR ... Miriam Agler-Rosenbaum

🎥 New "3 Questions for …" episode! Prof. Miriam Rosenbaum shows how microbes can produce antibiotics, bioplastics, and find balance under stress. Discover how our #ClusterOfExcellence brings interdisciplinary science to life! 🌱🔬
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA45...

Zoltán Cseresnyés, an older man with short gray hair and a friendly smile, stands indoors beside a long office table. He is wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt, gray trousers, and brown shoes. He holds a small potted bonsai tree in both hands. On the table next to him are a large potted plant, a green watering can, and a book. The background shows a bright modern room with white walls and wooden flooring. In the upper left, a colorful speech bubble contains the text: “I am an image analyst. I help biologists and chemists to analyze their image data and get information and quantification out of microscopy images, thus allowing them to modify or plan experiments.” The Leibniz-HKI logo appears in blue at the bottom left, and an orange arrow points to the right.

Colorful calendar page for October 2025 from the Leibniz-HKI Calendar. The background fades from blue on the left to purple on the right. The word 'OCTOBER' appears in bold orange letters. Below it, the name 'Zoltán Cseresnyés' is written in large green text. At the bottom left, small black text reads 'Leibniz-HKI Calendar 2025' with the blue Leibniz-HKI logo beneath it. On the right side, the word 'SWIPE' is written in black uppercase letters next to an orange arrow pointing right.

A close-up photo shows the back of a man’s head as he looks at a computer monitor displaying a complex network of colorful lines and nodes on a dark background – microscopy data visualization. The desk below the monitor holds papers, computer accessories, and cables. In the top left, a colorful speech bubble contains the text: “The real highlight was being there at the very beginning of super-resolution microscopy.” The Leibniz-HKI logo appears in blue at the bottom left, and an orange arrow points to the right.

Zoltán Cseresnyés and a younger woman with dark hair, one of his colleagues, sit side by side at a table in a bright office. Zoltán, wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt, gestures with his hand while explaining something on a laptop screen. The woman listens attentively, wearing a patterned blouse and a wristwatch. Behind them, large windows with blinds fill the room with natural light. A colorful speech bubble above them contains the text: “It is crucial to remain flexible and open – both in mind and in career.” The Leibniz-HKI logo appears in blue at the bottom left of the image.

🍁 Meet our #October #calendar 2025 feature: Zoltán Cseresnyés, imaging specialist at our @appsysbio.bsky.social research group. From 1980s Hungary to super-resolution microscopy at Cambridge, he now helps researchers unlock insights from complex images. 🔬🌌
lmy.de/LsPim

#FacesOfScience #LeibnizHKI

📣 I’m excited to share two open positions in my lab @leibniz-hki.de. For this interdisciplinary project with @luziagyr.bsky.social, I’m seeking (1) an enthusiastic PhD student interested in fungal natural product research and genetic engineering, as well as (2) a technical assistant 👇🏻

Thank you so much @mpm-hki.bsky.social for having me - I have enjoyed my first visit to Jena very much

An oak tree isolate of #CandidaAlbicans was “trained” on a sugar-rich diet for 6 weeks! Its descendants showed greater antifungal resistance, and some showed enhanced hyphae formation, and more host-cell damage. Even "harmless" strains can turn pathogenic under sweet conditions.
(2/2)

“Pour some sugar on me”—Environmental Candida albicans isolates and the evolution of increased pathogenicity and antifungal resistance through sugar adaptation Author summary In this study, we set out to understand whether Candida albicans found in nature can be as dangerous as the strains collected from patients, and whether a diet high in sugar affects the...

“Pour some sugar on me” — environmental #CandidaAlbicans strains on a sugar diet can evolve enhanced virulence and antifungal resistance.
Read our @leibniz-hki.de most recent discovery @plos.org
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
(1/2)

Myrto Katsipoulaki (third from the right) won a prize for her poster

It's a wrap! Thanks to the organizers at @microbiologysociety.org for this great #Candida2025 conference! 🍄👏😊

And congratulations to our PhD student Myrto who won a prize for her excellent poster presentation! 🥳🎉

@leibniz-hki.de

Thanks to the organizers at @microbiologysociety.org for giving us the opportunity to present our work!

Feel free to contact and approach us anytime during the conference if you have further questions/comments/suggestions! 😊

Theresa Lange's plenary session talk about C. glabrata's interaction with macrophages

Tim Schille's presentation about dissecting the antibacterial functions of candidalysin

Sascha Brunke's presentation about Osama Elshafee's work about the C. albicans lipase gene family

Hope y'all enjoyed our talks at #Candida2025! Theresa presented yesterday one of her PhD projects about the C. glabrata-macrophage interaction. Tim presented today his work about the antibacterial mechanisms of candidalysin, and Sascha presented Osama's work on C. albicans' lipases.
@leibniz-hki.de

Anna's poster B22

At today's poster session at #Candida2025 come and check out Anna's poster #B022! She presents her PhD project about Candida albicans protein kinases and how they affect pathogenicity.

@microbiologysociety.org
@trr124-funginet.bsky.social
@leibniz-hki.de

Verena's poster A024

Steffi's poster A006

Myrto's poster A012

Don't miss our posters at #Candida2025 today! Myrto presents poster #A12 about dissecting C. albicans isolates using reporter cell lines. Steffi's poster #A6 is about ECE1 in non-albicans Candida species. And Verena presents her multi-reporter cells at poster #A24.
@microbiologysociety.org