Professor for Microbial Communities @dome-vienna.bsky.social @cemess.bsky.social University of Vienna @univie.ac.at 🇦🇹, studying the role of microbes 🦠 in environmental and human health, sulfur microbes & gut microbiome
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Hydrogen sulfide production distinguishes Salmonella from close relatives, but its biological significance remains obscure. This study uncovers the secret: Salmonella uses hydrogen sulfide production as a weapon to outcompete E. coli and gain a foothold in the gut. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Von Wien nach Kanada: #Permafrost und heiße Quellen ❄️♨️ Warum macht man eigentlich #Feldforschung in #Kanada? 🔍 Was treibt uns Forscher*innen dazu, mit Bären- und Mosquitospray bewaffnet, bei jedem Wetter in Wäldern oder #Mooren zu graben? 👨🔬👩🔬 Erfahre mehr darüber in der #Rudolphina: ⤵️
Nice summary from Songcan & Marc 🙏 on our discovery of a new microbial energy metabolism 🦠 🧫 ⚡ 🔌 Microbial Iron oxide respiration coupled to Sulfide Oxidation (MISO) @nature.com Research Briefing 😍 doi.org/10.1038/d415... 📰 Original paper www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microsky #microbiomesky
Deadline approaching on Sept 17! We are hiring a Full Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry of Metals at #CeMESS at the University of Vienna. Learn more: 🔗 edge.univie.ac.at/news-talks/n... @edge-vienna.bsky.social @univie.ac.at #EnvironmentalBiochemistry
One week to go! Apply by Sept 17 for the Full Professor position in Soil Ecosystems and Global Change at #CeMESS at the University of Vienna. More info: 🔗 ter.univie.ac.at/news-talks/n... @univie.ac.at #SoilEcosystems #WeAreHiring
We now show that this redox reaction also powers 🔋🔌 a new chemolithoautotrophic lifestyle of anaerobic microbes 🦠🧫
Plastic‐Microbial BioRemediation DB: A Curated Database for Multi‐Omics Applications enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #jcampubs
Structures of methane-activating enzyme in elusive archaea @mariecmueller.bsky.social @cuwelte.bsky.social @mpimarinemicrobio.bsky.social #methane #ANME #archaea #MCR #microbiology #biochemistry #StructuralBiology mpi-bremen.de/en/Structure...
Metabolic biochemical models of N2 fixation for sulfide oxidizers, methanogens, and methanotrophs journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs
Translational coupling of neighboring genes in prokaryotes journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs
Fantastic news: Megan Sørensen has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her project TRANSITIONS! In her upcoming research at #CeMESS she will explore how endosymbiosis evolves, from protist partnership to organelle. Read more: 🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-... #ERCStG @erc.europa.eu
#Editorial In this month's editorial, we talk about microbial foods. Bacteria and fungi can augment the flavour, composition and sustainability of foods, but more research is needed to push microbial foods — and consumer palates — to new heights. #MicroSky 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Review. Dissecting microbial communities with single-cell transcriptome analysis. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Final program of the 8th AMICI Symposium is now set! 🦠🧫 microbiome.at/sites/microb... September 22, 2025 @bokuvienna.bsky.social Vienna, Austria Register now and for free! tinyurl.com/AMICI8-ATBI #AMICI8 #AMICI2025 #ATBI #microbiome #bioinformatics #microbiomesky #microsky
Nature research paper: Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation go.nature.com/425wlLA
New @fwf-at.bsky.social CoE Microplanet Publication @nature.com! A study from the lab of CoE Researcher Alexander Loy @loyteam.bsky.social @cemess.bsky.social @univie.ac.at uncovers bacteria that “breathe” rocks using toxic sulfide in oxygen-free environments. Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📢 🦠 A new methanotroph from Czech peat! Through an effort led by PhD student in my group Justus Nweze we isolated and describe a new CH4-muncher. Potential for a flexible (annaerobic) metabolisms and cool pH adaptations. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #microbesky #microbiomesky
Microbes that oxidize toxic sulfide while reducing iron minerals have been identified as key drivers of sulfide detoxification in oxygen-free environments, accelerating this process beyond chemical reactions. doi.org/g9zqq2
www.univie.ac.at/en/news/deta...
Lithosyntrophy: Obligate syntrophy in a phosphite-oxidizing, methanogenic culture www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs
Bacteria that 'breathe' rocks and sulphur. 🦠🧫 An international team of scientists led by #microbiologists @loyteam.bsky.social and Marc Mussmann have uncovered #bacteria that remove toxic sulfide and use iron #minerals for growth. 🧪🧑🔬 Read more here: ⤵️ @cemess.bsky.social
also the HMM suite for an extensive array of sulfur enzymes is very handy (already used it!) ! :-)
For life to emerge on Earth, peptides must first have formed without the aid of enzymes — but how? Reactions of sulfur-containing molecules might have been key go.nature.com/4oX04jC
An exciting new study from Alexander Loy and team (@loyteam.bsky.social), now in @nature.com! It describes a previously unknown microbial energy metabolism: Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation (MISO). Read more: 🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...
Two-billion-year transitional oxygenation of the Earth’s surface www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs 🌊
New paper alert! We suggest caution in the analyses of viral auxiliary metabolic genes and propose a new overarching term - 'auxiliary viral genes' (AVGs) to describe different types of such genes. @simrouxvirus.bsky.social #phagesky #Microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🙏 This work would not exist without support and funding from @univie.ac.at and @fwf-at.bsky.social #sulfide #ferrihydrite #sulfurcycle #ironcycle #ironoxide #microbiome #microsky #microbiomesky 🧫🦠
From @cemess.bsky.social @microbesplanet.bsky.social for pulling this off💪
🙌 I am deeply thankful to Song-Can Chen Marc Mussmann the other team members Nicola Battisti Guoqing Guan Maria A. Montoya and great collaborators Xiao-Min Li Jay Osvatic @ppjevac.bsky.social @envsysmicro.at @andreasrichter.bsky.social Arno Schintlmeister Wolfgang Wanek
🆕 These findings extend understanding of the interplay of sulfur and iron biogeochemistry in anoxic marine and terrestrial environments, providing a new biological mechanism for phenomena of sulfide detoxification and cryptic sulfate formation.
✅ A first estimate indicates that MISO accounts for 1-7% of total sulfide oxidation in marine sediments on a global scale
✅ MISO outperforms the chemical reaction under environmentally relevant sulfide concentrations ✅ Key MISO genes are evolutionarily conserved in the family Desulfurivibrionaceae and widely distributed across marine, freshwater, terrestrial, and engineered environments
Main findings ✅ The genetic capacity for sulfur compound oxidation and iron(III) oxide respiration co-occurs in genomes from 37 phyla ✅ Desulfurivibrio alkaliphilus grows autotrophically by oxidizing dissolved sulfide or iron monosulfide (FeS) to sulfate with ferrihydrite as electron acceptor
We now show that this redox reaction also powers 🔋🔌 a new chemolithoautotrophic lifestyle of anaerobic microbes 🦠🧫
Biogeochemical cycling is largely driven by microorganisms, yet sulfide oxidation by iron(III) oxide minerals - a critical step in the global sulfur and iron cycles in anoxic ecosystems - was considered to be a strictly chemical process.
📢 New paper in @nature.com Microbes rock 🎸🤘 with sulfide and iron minerals I am very excited to share our recent study, which describes a previously unknown microbial energy metabolism ⚡⚡⚡🦠🧫⚡⚡⚡ 🆕 Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - MISO www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I cannot fully put into words what publishing this Review has meant to me, so I leave you with how we closed the paper. "The humble bacterium is still a relevant tool for the study of the underlying mechanisms that are conserved throughout life." 🧪🧫🧬📚 doi.org/10.1093/gene...
#NatMicroPicks ACL Circuit: Gut Signal Switch! 🦠 ACL is a density-dependent signaling mechanism in Bacteroidota that regulates the production of diverse secreted molecules via a unique lysine-based biosynthetic pathway playing an active role in the host. #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The University of Vienna launches #ViCAS to foster innovative, interdisciplinary #research and to create a space where ideas thrive beyond borders - #academic, disciplinary, and national. 👨🔬👩🔬 Find out more about ViCAS and its #fellowships: ⤵️🔍 vicas.univie.ac.at #AcademicSky #edusky #PhDSky
My PhD student @leonielorenz.bsky.social (with Eva Geissen) has made this nice (free) online course to introduce mathematical modelling for biology: www.ebi.ac.uk/training/onl... Including both molecular and epidemiological examples
#NewResearch Prion-like proteins in Escherichia coli trigger an abortive infection mechanism in response to phage infection—a process similar to amyloid-mediated immune signalling in fungi and animals. #MicroSky 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ecophysiology and global dispersal of the freshwater SAR11-IIIb genus Fontibacterium www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Saddened to learn of the passing of Moselio "Elio" Schaechter—Distinguished Professor at Tufts, SDSU and UCSD—humanist and visionary leader in the fields of microbiology and scientific communication—mentor, friend, and inspiration to me and so many others Small Things Considered Big Things Achieved
Looking for a read for the long-weekend? Check out this @profil.at article with Alexander Loy (@loyteam.bsky.social) on the possible link between gut microbes and chronic pain (paywall)🔗 www.profil.at/wissenschaft...
Leafy greens may do more than nourish you! A new study by #CeMESS researchers @julkras.bsky.social and @loyteam.bsky.social shows that sulfoquinovose is metabolized by key gut microbes into hydrogen sulfide, revealing intriguing prebiotic potential. Read more:🔗 dome.univie.ac.at/news-events/...
The goal of a PhD is not to learn some facts or read a few papers or learn a bunch of techniques. The goal of a PhD is to learn independence, problem solving, how to finish things you start, resilience, & gain the ability to adapt & think creatively. Learning these things is hard.
I'm beyond excited to share that our last work is now published in Nature Communications. The South American MicroBiome Archive (saMBA): enriching the microbiome field by studying neglected populations 📄: shorturl.at/wq9pr
The emergence of metabolisms through Earth history and implications for biospheric evolution royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs
Life in the Frozen Ocean www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... #jcampubs 🌊
Unusual Plastoquinones in Non‐Phototrophic Nitrifying Bacteria enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #jcampubs
New @fwf-at.bsky.social CoE Microplanet Publication in Microbiome! CoE Researcher @loyteam.bsky.social @cemess.bsky.social @univie.ac.at reveals that sulfoquinovose from leafy greens acts as promising prebiotic by boosting beneficial gut bacteria. microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Our recent paper by @julkras.bsky.social provides further insights into the metabolism of sulfoquinovose in humans and lab mice, and its prebiotic potential. 🦠🧫 #microbesky #microbiomesky microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Check this nice first first-author paper by Ning Hall—now out in Nature Geoscience! Our team had a blast supporting Ning on the isolation workflow, and a few of the standout Methanococcoides strains even trace back to our Danish waters. 🌊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🚨Spoiler alert ✅Only microbes can metabolize sulfoquinovose (SQ) - not the host ✅Specialized SQ fermenting bacteria in the gut not only produce acetate but also butyrate ✅A standard lab mouse is not an ideal model to study health impacts of SQ metabolism in humans 🦠🧫 #microbesky #microbiomesky
Our recent paper by @julkras.bsky.social provides further insights into the metabolism of sulfoquinovose in humans and lab mice, and its prebiotic potential. 🦠🧫 #microbesky #microbiomesky microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
You know sulfoquinovose (SQ)? No?! You should if you are interested in diet-gut microbiome 🦠🧫interactions 😉 SQ is a sulfosugar that this part of a ubiquitous sulfonolipid in photosynthetic organisms and thus part of your diet - if you like leafy greens and algae 🥬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Microbial dispersal into surface soil is limited on a meter scale #ISMEJournal by Kendra Walters, Kristin Barbour, John Powers, Jennifer Martiny academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
🚨3-yr Postdoc Position on #SingleCell Activities in #Marine #N-Cycling🦠🧪👩🎓🔬 Join me @univie.ac.at @dome-vienna.bsky.social Part of our ERC Synergy #RECLESS looking at microbes in marine oxygen minimum zones Apply by Oct 15, start March 2026! -> ucloud.univie.ac.at/index.php/s/...
Interested in the physiology of #nitrifiers? Have a look at our new paper reporting novel methyl-plastoquinones (m-PQs) in comammox and nitrite-oxidizing #Nitrospira bacteria #MicroSky 🧪 #nitrification #physiology #collaboration enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
💥Personalized C. difficile colonization risk prediction and probiotic therapy assessment in the human gut💥 I'm very excited about this work, driven by Alex Carr & co-supervised by @cdiener.com @cp-cellsystems.bsky.social @isbscience.org @nitinbaliga.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-systems... 🧵...
Check out our latest publication where we performed AMR screening in ~2000 metagenomes from food and production surfaces in Europe. >60% samples carrying ARGs, >70% of all ARG found, and critical role of non-ESKAPEE from surfaces of the latest stages of production over the final products’ resistome!
Journals and funders are trying to boost the speed and effectiveness of review processes that are under strain go.nature.com/4oohvJD
Part 2 of our #SeqCode video series is here! This time, we dive into #Latin and #name formation, presented by Dr. Dominik Berrens from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz. 🍿 Enjoy share, and don't be shy - ask questions in the comments! #Nomenclature #Taxonomy www.youtube.com/watch?v=eldx...
🚨 2 funded #PhD positions (ERC Adv Grant) in the Moissl-Eichinger Lab, Graz! Study Methanobrevibacter as a keystone in the gut microbiome. 💡 Omics, modeling, synthetic consortia 📅 Deadline: Sept 10, 2025 🌍 Int’l applicants welcome! Application link below. #microbiomesky #archaeasky #microsky
Happy to share our Practical Guide on Environmental Genomics for Prokaryotic Nomenclature, led by @nathanernster.bsky.social and part of SAM's special issue on @seqcode.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
our new paper on pelagic #Asgard archaea that use #rhodopsins with carotenoid antennas to harvest light energy in the oceans. Structural insights into light-harvesting by antenna-containing rhodopsins in marine Asgard archaea www.nature.com/articles/s41... @galitzlil.bsky.social
Exciting news! Hannes Schmidt has been awarded funding from the #FWF 'Tausend Ideen' program for his project "SurfinSoil". Congratulations, Hannes! 🔗 Dive into the details here: cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...
You can get an accurate estimate of total bacterial biomass from stool metagenomes by simply normalizing by host read count, without needing any additional measurements. Excellent work by UW Master's student Gechlang Tang in @asm.org #mSystems Journal. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... 🧵
🚨💩Very proud to share a new preprint of the lab ~~ we show that gut microbial diversity and inferred capacity for butyrate production predict cortisol stress reactivity in humans ~~ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Exciting new research by Petra Pjevac (@ppjevac.bsky.social) explores the salinization of Lake Vrana and its ecological impacts. Dive into the findings here: 🔗 dome.univie.ac.at/news-events/...
CeMESS is hiring! Join us at the Division of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research (@ter-cemess.bsky.social) as Full Professor of SOIL ECOSYSTEMS AND GLOBAL CHANGE. Collaborate across a leading institution in microbiome science and environmental research. 🔗 Learn more: cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...
Exciting new research! Matthias Horn & Lukas Helmlinger from #CeMESS uncover how chlamydiae thrive in social amoebae by skipping their extracellular stage. Read their groundbreaking study in Current Biology (@currentbiology.bsky.social): 🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...
Chlamydien sind bekannte #Krankheitserreger des Menschen. Ein Team von Mikrobiolog*innen der Uni Wien konnte nun zeigen: Einige #Chlamydien verzichten vollständig auf eine infektiöse extrazelluläre Form und verbreiten sich stattdessen direkt von Wirtszelle zu Wirtszelle. 🦠 🔬 ⤵️ @cemess.bsky.social
CeMESS is hiring! Join us at the Division of Environmental Geosciences (@edge-vienna.bsky.social) as Full Professor of ENVIRONMENTAL BIOGEOCHEMISTRY OF METALS. Collaborate across a leading institution in microbiome science and environmental research. 🔗 Learn more and apply: tinyurl.com/47bev45k
We're hiring! Join CeMESS @univie.ac.at as a DATA STEWARD and help shape the future of research data management. Collaborate with top researchers and drive innovation in Open Science. Apply now! 🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/career-educa...
PFAS – known as “forever chemicals” – are everywhere, from food packaging to drinking water. #CeMESS | @edge-vienna.bsky.social researcher Thilo Hofmann explains what makes them so dangerous and why we urgently need to act. Read the @profil.at article here (paywall) 🔗 www.profil.at/wissenschaft...
Great podcast recording with Nicole Geerlings for #MattersMicrobial about weird and wonderful cable bacteria! I truly enjoyed the session. Releasing next week. @nmjgeerlings.bsky.social
We're thrilled to celebrate Joana Góis Valério @joanalgv.bsky.social, who has been awarded a DOC Fellowship by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (#ÖAW)! At CeMESS, she’s investigating how beneficial bacteria like Variovorax join root microbiomes: 🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-... @univie.ac.at
Great turnout, lively discussion & lots of storytelling! Recently, we had the pleasure of hosting “From Paper to Story” – a hands-on science communication workshop with climate journalist Verena Mischitz @vmischitz.bsky.social at CeMESS. Thank you to everyone who joined! #scicomm #climateresearch
Big congratulations to Alejandro Llanos-Lizcano on receiving a #DOCfellowship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)! His research at #CeMESS explores host–microbe interactions in lucinid clams. Read more:🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-... #ÖAW #PhD @univie.ac.at
#Outreach at CeMESS: We recently welcomed a group of women and kids from #NACHBARINNENinWien for a hands-on introduction to microbiology – and a great exchange about science, education & access. Read more🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...
We (with Clement Coclet, not on Bsky) had the chance to work on a broad "state of viromics" review. We tried to use this to give an overview of how the field changed over the last ~ 15 years, and also what we think are some of the major remaining challenges. Full-text access at -> rdcu.be/excHt
We prepared an additional sylph database for the GlobDB with subsampling rate 1000 (-c 1000) requiring lower RAM than the default 200. Both databases and taxonomy are available at globdb.org
Finally online! Our latest research is out @nature.com: We show that non-antibiotic drugs can disrupt colonization resistance, raising the risk of enteric infections. rdcu.be/ewwrG
Published in Nature today! Here, we sought to systematically ask how natural community's metabolism changes with the environment. A simple consumer-resource model can predict N-cycle metabolism (nitrate use) and, more importantly, the mechanism behind its change. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Comprehensive taxonomic identification of microbial species in metagenomic data using SingleM and Sandpiper www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Are you interested in microbes that are rare but active? We combined BONCAT with SIP and metaproteomics to improve the recovery of labeled proteins from such microbes. In this case, it illuminated a new anaerobic syntrophic acetate-oxidizing bacterium. tinyurl.com/a8j29dsr #microbiomesky #microsky
Thrilled to share the first preprint from my group! Prevotella are predominant but understudied members of the respiratory microbiome. They have a reputation for being hard to work with, but understanding them is likely important for understanding how they contribute to respiratory health. 🧫🔬
GenomeFISH: genome-based fluorescence in situ hybridisation for strain-level visualisation of microbial communities academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #jcampubs
New paper with the Baloni Lab at Purdue just went online, where we describe the construction of a tissue-specific metabolic model of the colon, iColonEpithelium, compatible with our MICOM platform for simulating microbiota metabolism. Great work by Boyu Jiang! 👏 journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Excited to share “Bin Chicken”, substantially improving genome recovery through rational metagenomic assembly. Applied to public 🌍 metagenomes, it recovered 24,000 novel species 🦠, including 6 novel phyla. doi.org/10.1101/2024... @wwood @rhysnewell @CMR_QUT 🧵1/6
Ever needed to analyze flagellomes? @anya-bogdanova.bsky.social and @atyakht.bsky.social developed FlaPro to sort flagellins into how they are predicted to interact with TLR5: silent or stimulatory. The ratio changes with IBD! 🧫🦠
Big congratulations to Dagmar Woebken (@dagmarwoebken.bsky.social) who has been awarded an #ERC Advanced Grant for her project "WinMicAct" to explore how desert microbes thrive on non-rainwater. 🔗 More info: cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...
Join us in congratulating Katharina Kitzinger (@kathikitzinger.bsky.social) on her appointment as Assistant Professor at #CeMESS! 🔗 Read more: cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...
We’re thrilled to announce that Megan Sørensen has been awarded an FWF-ASTRA for her upcoming research at #CeMESS on microbial partnerships and evolution! Read more about the grant and project 🔗 cemess.univie.ac.at/news/detail-...
Join us at #ViCAS - a new interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Vienna! 🏛️ Application for Senior #Fellowships and Early-Career Fellowships are now possible. 👨🔬👩🔬 📅 Deadline for Application: 1st September 2025. Apply now: ⤵️ vicas.univie.ac.at #PhDSky #AcademicSky
First paper on our projects on #Klebsiella transmission in the hospital environment; I'm so lucky to get to work with the wonderful teams@ Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Program, Kamuzu University, Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital🇲🇼 #MicroSky #IDSky #GlobalHealth 🧬💻🧪 (1/3) www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Many thanks @anne-daebeler.bsky.social and @roeyangel.bsky.social for being great hosts during my 3-month stay at your institute at the Biology Centre CAS 🤩 I had a wonderful time! Greetings to your colleagues and team members 👋🙌
Today, June 27, marks World Microbiome Day! We're celebrating with the inaugural Austrian Microbiome Research Awards. Congrats to Cornelia Rottensteiner @cornelia-cr.bsky.social @cemess.bsky.social @univie.ac.at, Charlotte Neumann @medunigraz.at, and Daniela Wöber @AIT. @fwf-at.bsky.social Details👇
