Balance of the Microverse

Time for interdisciplinary #LIFEScience CONNECTions! Meet researchers and network with local companies & intitatives at the 4th LIFE Symposium!
🗓️Nov 26, 2025
🔗 kurzlinks.de/LIFESymposium
@uni-jena.de

👏 @uni-jena.de ranks among the top 11% of universities worldwide in the new THE World University Ranking 2026!

We’re proud to contribute to this strong research and innovation environment through the our Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse". 🌍

Evi Stegmann from IMIT, @unituebingen.bsky.social, joined our #MicroverseSeminarSeries for an inspiring talk on natural product biosynthesis. She shared insights into the genes behind negamycin production & balhimycin biosynthetic machinery – sparking lively discussions! Thank you for visiting us!

Chemiker lobt Forschungslandschaft in Deutschland | MDR.DE Deutschlands Forschung ist laut Chemiker Peter Seeberger besser als ihr Ruf: Auch in Mitteldeutschland entstehen wegweisende Projekte für eine nachhaltige Chemie.

🎙 MDR AKTUELL: Nobel Prize day! While the #Chemistry awards are celebrated in Stockholm, #Jena’s #ClusterOfExcellence at the @uni-jena.de investigates microbial “conversations” that could reshape medicine and biotechnology. Full #MDR feature: www.mdr.de/nachrichten/...

18 students from across Germany joined us at our #ClusterOfExcellence at @uni-jena.de for the #CampusThüringenTour! 💬 Talks, lab tours & hands-on microbiology — from Gram staining to magnetotactic bacteria from the Saale. 🔬🌱🧫 #ScienceEducation #Microbiology

🚦 @uni-jena.de proposes “The Smartest Traffic Lights in Jena” for Bürgerbudget 2025: crossing figures with microscopes, microbes & QR codes to fun science insights. 💡 Science at the crosswalk – vote via mitmachen.jena.de/budgets/5/in...

#GreenLightForScience

We're so happy to share our newest ancient DNA findings in Mongolia on the Slab Grave expansion and its consequences for diverse Bronze Age pastoralists! doi.org/10.1038/s414...

🎥 New feature on “Balance of the Microverse” by JenaTV!
Our PI & Executive Board member Prof. Miriam Agler-Rosenbaum explains why microbial communities matter – and you’ll also get a look at our new Microverse building.

👉 www.jenatv.de/mediathek/81...

Hope y'all enjoyed Tim's talk at the #DGHM as much as we did! He presented his @microverse.bsky.social -funded PhD work on the antibacterial mechanisms of candidalysin. 🦠🍄🧫
He's still around for a chat in case you have questions about his project! 😊

@leibniz-hki.de

Jobs - Balance of the Microverse

This is part of a larger call for the newly re-funded Excellence cluster Balance of the Microverse @microverse.bsky.social. In total there are 15 positions available: www.microverse-cluster.de/en/career/jo...

We're organizing a new CARTA symposium this November 7 on "Ancient DNA: New Revelations"! We have an amazing lineup of speakers who will showcase the biggest discoveries in ancient DNA over the past 5 years - and offer a sneak peek of what's next. Mark your calendars and don't miss it!

Two Microbiology Master’s Students Awarded Wübben Scienc… Two Master’s students in the M.Sc. Microbiology program at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Samira Quanz and …

55 students got the Wübben Science Foundation Student Grant! 🎓 Among them: Samira Quanz & Emily Reichel from our #ClusterOfExcellence. 🦠🔬 Read more about their research: www.microverse-cluster.de/en/news/two-...
@w-s-w.org @uni-jena.de

#Microverse #StudentGrant #FutureScientists

🌍 Today is the #InternationalMicroorganismsDay!
On this occasion, we are naming the Microverse #MicrobeoftheYear 2025: Candida albicans.

Carried by up to 95% of people, it usually lives harmlessly in our bodies – but can also cause infections.
www.microverse-cluster.de/en/news/micr...

#PlantSciJobs #PlantSciJob
PhD position: Signal Detection and Modification in Algal-Bacterial Interactions

In Excellence Cluster @microverse.bsky.social at @uni-jena.de

Start: 1 January 2026
Deadline: 5 October 2025
www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/job-openi...

Bacterial community adaptation after freshwater and seawater coalescence Microbial community coalescence, the merging of entire microbial communities, is common across ecosystems, particularly in estuaries where freshwater and seawater mix. The complexity of these habitats...

💧🌊 What happens when freshwater bacteria meet their salty counterparts?
Our new preprint explores the ecological factors driving community coalescence 👉https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.09.675091v1 @bedutilh.bsky.social @microverse.bsky.social

YouTube video by Universität Jena THREE QUESIONS FOR ... Prof. Michael Bauer

On #WorldSepsisDay, Michael Bauer from Jena University Hospital shares how microbiome research at our #ClusterOfExcellence could change the way we understand and treat #sepsis. Watch the latest "3 Questions for..." clip! #MicrobiomeResearch
www.youtube.com/watch?v=auG7...
@lifeprofile.bsky.social

At this week’s #JEMS, Michael Zimmermann (@zimmermannlab.bsky.social & @embl.org) shared insights on how gut microbiota shape #drugmetabolism and carcinogen toxicity. Fascinating findings on cancer risk, #drugresponse variability, and limits of current models. Thanks for the inspiring talk!

🚴‍♀️ On Sept 12, the Sepsis Awareness Tour 2025 stops in Jena! Led by the Center for Sepsis Control & Care (CSCC), experts share how early detection saves lives. Join us at Teichgraben, 2 p.m. #WorldSepsisDay #SepsisAwareness #Jena

Submit a poster and present your research at the NFDI4Microbiota Conference in Cologne (30 Sept – 2 Oct 2025). The poster session offers a space for exchange between wet-lab scientists and bioinformaticians. Deadline: 11 September. Participation is free.
Register here: events.hifis.net/eve...

Be a leader in chemistry! 🏆 ⚗️

It is already possible today to store your research data FAIR. Do you want to lead the way? Then apply with your FAIR data set for the #FAIR4Chem Award 2026 and a 500 euro prize! 💰

https://bit.ly/3sCGoct

#chemistry #FAIR

We’re hiring! 🚀
Join us and work with Prof. Rosalind Allen on modeling microbial community dynamics.

📍 Jena, Germany
🎓 PhD or Postdoc position
🗓️ Start: Dec 2025

Apply here 👉 jobs.uni-jena.de/jobposting/f...

#Microverse #Jena #PhD #Postdoc #MicrobialEcology

Just a few more days to apply! ⏰

The NFDI4Microbiota Conference takes place 30 Sept – 2 Oct 2025 at ZB MED, Cologne.💡 Motto: “From Lab to Publication – Bridging the Gap with Best Practices” | Free registration open until 31 August: events.hifis.net/eve... | Ambassadors receive travel & hotel reimbursement: nfdi4microbiota.de/c...

We have a new article out in Cell! Learn more about plague in prehistoric livestock: "Bronze Age Yersinia pestis genome from sheep sheds light on hosts and evolution of a prehistoric plague lineage" www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Happy Birthday, Goethe! 🌿
Though he never saw microbes under a microscope, his holistic view of nature still inspires us today. At the #Microverse, we explore how microbial worlds shape life’s balance – just as Goethe imagined nature as one interconnected whole.
Illustration: AI-generated

Meet us at #GAIN25 in #Boston, Aug 29–31! Discover career paths in Germany with Balance of the Microverse, @uni-jena.de. Connect with 80+ institutions & explore opportunities for your research career!

EXPEDITIONS | Jogler Lab This tab contains informations about the expeditions of this working group.

👉 joglerlab.de/expeditions

🌊 In June 2025, Prof. Christian Jogler and his team dove into Corsica’s seagrass meadows to explore unseen microbial worlds. Samples collected by scientists & divers are now cultivated at @uni-jena.de — tiny discoveries that may unlock novel bacteria and future natural products.