The Mitri lab

I have been a bit slow updating our publication list, but it’s finally there! This year, in addition to a short highlight piece by Snorre, we have posted four papers on bioRxiv: two on artificial community selection (a theoretical model led by Björn and Pablo and a monster of an experiment led by Flora), one on how interactions can change to facilitation when the environment becomes toxic (experiment by Rita and model by Aurore) and a theoretical framework that can be used to predict how interactions can change as a function of the environment (by Oli)!

We have also published one paper where we built a simple model of the gut with two compartments and explore how this compartmentalization can affect the stability of the community (by Shota), and a review/opinion paper (by Shota, Aurore and Oli) discussing when one should use which model (Lotka-Volterra versus consumer-resource models) depending on the experimental system.

It’s been a productive year (go team!) and we’re excited to see what 2024 brings, with lots of exciting work in the pipeline 🙂

Ashikin Abdul Hamid joined the lab in June (yes, I’m a bit behind) and is the first chemist to be part of the lab! Finally 😀

We are very happy to have Alessia Del Panta and Julien Luneau join us, who were previously in the group of Alma Dal Co. They are integrating quickly into the group and bringing along great expertise and a positive energy!

Snorre Sulheim and Margaret Vogel have just joined the group as postdocs! They will be working on predicting community composition across different environments using experiments and models.

Welcome to Nadine Harmsen, who is doing her MSc project with us, coming all the way from Zurich 🙂

Massimo Amicone, who did his PhD at the IGC in Portugal has also joined this month.

We are really happy to have them both in the lab!

Open postdoc position in our group: we are looking for a chemist interested in how microbial communities transform their environments (machine oils and bioplastics). Come work with a fun, interdisciplinary group in Lausanne, Switzerland. The position would ideally start in February 2023 and funding is available for one year. Apply here by 31.12. or forward to whomever you think may be interested!

A big welcome to Clément who joined us (yes, I’m a bit behind) in June! We are really enjoying all the exciting ideas and contagious energy he has brought to the group!

Go read about our latest work:

Andrea Dos Santos has led the work on the first one, together with Rita Di Martino and Samuele Testa. The work shows how growth media can sometimes be inhibitory to bacteria, which can make it hard to identify their interactions with other species. Read more here.

Philippe Piccardi submitted this one just before leaving the lab, work that he started with Géraldine Alberti for her Master project, in collaboration with Jake Alexander from ETHZ. We show that microbial communities can promote the growth of invasive species when the environment is harsh, but invasions become harder as these communities co-evolve. Read more here.

Congratulations to all involved!

Welcome to Michela Lain! She joins us from Italy to work on biofilms in Metal Working Fluids.

We are looking for a postdoc to work on modelling the ecology and evolution of microbial communities! The position is relatively flexible in topic, but the chosen candidate will be expected to integrate their work tightly with experimental data and participate in teaching and supervising students. Funding is available for up to 3 years. More details and the application procedure can be found here. Deadline to apply is February 15th.