Our website for the annual meeting on “Sensory and Regulatory RNAs in Prokaryotes” is online now. We feel privileged that this year's meeting will take place in Freiburg and are looking forward to it!

This is in the Black Forest in February 2019, the ski run is just 30 min from our Freiburg lab.

On FEB 04, 2019, Steffen defended his doctoral thesis on the topic of „Big Data Meets Biology - Revealing Hidden Layers Of Information“. Steffen has contributed to workflow and data modularization concepts for RNA-Sequencing and metatranscriptome experiments, developed an approach for the automated and reliable detection of homologs to bacterial sRNAs and much more. Big congratulations for finishing the thesis work so well!

Yesterday, on OCT 10, 2018, Juliane has defended her doctoral thesis on „Identification and characterization of crRNA processing endoribonucleases and new insights in adaptation and interference during CRISPR-Cas immunity in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803“ with the rarely awarded highest possible rating summa cum laude. Big congratulations from all Cyanolabbers to this phantastic outcome!

Transcription factors of the GntR type possess two domains: a DNA binding domain in the N-terminal part, and a putative ligand-binding domain in the C-terminal section. Upon ligand binding, the protein activity is modified, leading to a change in the regulation of gene expression. Therefore, GntR-type transcriptional regulators are prime candidates to synchronize metabolism and transcription, especially in Cyanobacteria with their versatile pathways for photosynthesis-driven carbon and nitrogen assimilation. With their new paper “The GntR family transcriptional regulator PMM1637 regulates the highly conserved cyanobacterial sRNA Yfr2 in marine picocyanobacteria” the cyanolabbers Joke, Mascha and Claudia provide for the first time insight into the activity of such a transcription factor from the marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus MED4.