Prof. Markus Affolter about CRISPR/Cas9 Only a few years ago, the gene scissors CRISPR/Cas9 were discovered. It has revolutionized the scientific world, as it has never been so easy to change the genome of organisms. CRISPR…

Dissecting symbiotic interactions in the gut microbiota using the honeybee model Animals often harbor specialized gut microbial communities, exerting significant physiological and metabolic influences on their hosts.…

Computational analysis of tumor single‐cell sequencing data Cancer progression is an evolutionary process characterized by the accumulation of genetic alterations and responsible for tumor growth, clinical progression, and…

Research Fields Research at the Biozentrum is dedicated to the central question of how molecules and cells create life. We study the physical and biochemical mechanisms of cells and explore the behaviors and dynamics of…

DNA transfer by conjugation in live-cells DNA conjugation is a contact-dependent horizontal gene transfer mechanism responsible for the dissemination of metabolic properties in bacteria, including drug resistance. Despite…

Host tissue responses to bacterial infection: A story of Mice and Men Bacterial infection takes place in the complex microenvironment of the host tissue. Dependent on the infection type, this environment varies dramatically…

How to follow your passion for science while living with cerebral palsy Dr. Ilya Smolensky graduated from Saint Petersburg State University, PhD at the I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry.…

Characterizing bacterial behavior during human infection to guide new discoveries Bacterial behavior and physiology during human infection is difficult to study and largely unknown, as our vast knowledge of infection…

Reuniting cell families through gene expression memory Assigning single cell transcriptomes to cellular lineage trees has transformed our understanding of differentiation during development, regeneration, and disease.…

New Players in the Molecular Arms Race Between Bacteria and Phages Bacteria and the viruses that infect them, bacteriophages, are locked in a fierce coevolutionary battle. The need to defend themselves against phages has…