Microbial Genome Research

Microbial Genome Research

Head of Department: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Nübel

The department of Microbial Genome Research focuses its research on:

Population genomics and phylogeography - Our mission is to understand the evolution and spatial dispersal of bacterial populations, with a focus on drug resistance and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. 

Genome-based molecular epidemiology - We trace the emergence and transmission of bacterial pathogens at high spatial and temporal resolution based on large-scale bacterial whole-genome sequence analyses. We develop sequence-based tools for early detection of outbreaks of infections in healthcare-associated settings and we investigate major spreading routes and reservoirs of the pathogen Clostridioides difficile

Functional genomics of novel microbial producers - Prokaryotes represent an enormously diverse potential resource for novel bio-active compounds. We seek to accelerate natural product discovery by using high-throughput genome sequencing and genome mining to identify novel producer organisms outside of commonly studied bacterial groups. 

For detailed information visit the Epidemiology and Drug Synthesis pages.