Our latest paper is out! Samuele did an amazing job exploring how competition between two bacterial strains growing in a biofilm affects the infection of one of them by phage. The project was originally Philippe’s side-project and he recruited Sarah, who really pushed it forward during her Master project. It would all not have been possible without a great collaboration with Frank and Greg – the two phage experts in our department! Check it out here!
Author: Sara Mitri
Turnover in the lab
To our great sadness, Flora has been the first postdoc to leave our lab after a very fruitful year. She has also left for a good reason: to take up an independent postdoctoral fellowship in Berlin! The experiments that she has started are nicely rolling now, though, thanks to her great work!
The good news is that we have two new members: Aurore has started a postdoc, and Andrea a Phd. They will both be working on the same project as a team – Aurore will be building theoretical models, while Andrea will do the matching experiments. We are very excited to have them on board!
New pre-print on bioRxiv
Our latest pre-print is now available. We report on theoretical work by Shota Shibasaki, where he developed a model to explore public goods games in bioremediation of a toxic compound. The study shows that cheats that do not contribute to the public good can lead to system collapse, but by carefully controlling the system’s evolutionary dynamics, one can maximize detoxification efficiency.
First paper from the lab out in PNAS!
We are proud to present the work of Philippe Piccardi and Björn Vessman
We show that in a harsh, toxic environment, different bacterial species can facilitate each other’s growth. If the environment is made more benign, competition between species increases. This paper includes lab experiments by Philippe and a model by Björn.
We hope you enjoy it!
Alice and Géraldine join the lab!
Alice will be helping Flora with her soon-to-become massive experiment. And Géraldine is working on a Master project looking at species invasions into our well-studied community. Welcome to both of you!
Lab retreat 2019 in the Costa Brava
Afra is back…
… for her third internship in the lab! She is slowly becoming a key member. We will be enjoying her presence until June this time.
Successful Master theses
Congratulations to Andrea and Maria for completing their Master theses and doing such a great job at the defense and departmental presentations!
We will miss you, Maria!
Three new lab members!
Amazing lab retreat with the Engel lab in Diablerets!
We spent two wonderful days in the mountains talking science, eating, drinking and hiking…
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