VAAM PhD Awards 2026

 
 
Congratulations to our VAAM PhD Awardees 2026:

Frau Dr. Helena Schulz-Mirbach, Universität Marburg
Engineering synthetic C1 and C2 assimilation in Escherichia coli
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tobias Erb/ Universität Marburg/ MPI Marburg 

Herr Dr. Frederik Schmidt
Biochemical characterization of the iron nitrogenase
Deciphering the molecular properties of a nitrogen- and carbon dioxide- fixing metalloenzyme through structural and biochemical analyses
Supervisor: Dr. Johannes Rebelein, Universität Marburg/ MPI Marburg

Herr Dr. Christoph Elfmann
Bringing bioinformatics to the bench: SubtiWiki 5.0 and new web tools for research
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jörg Stülke, Universität Göttingen



Award ceremony at VAAM Annual Conference Berlin (not present C. Elfmann)
Foto: S. Haag-Richter/ VAAM

 

 

Chairman of the Prize Committee:

Prof. Dr. Jörg Stülke
Institut für Mikrobiologie und Genetik
Abt. Allgemeine Mikrobiologie
Universität Göttingen
Grisebachstrasse 8
37077 Göttingen
Tel: +49 (0)551-3933781
e-mail: jstuelk@gwdg.de


We thank our sponsors of VAAM Research Awards 2026: BASF SE, Evonik Operations GmbH, IBWF (Institut für Biotechnologie und Wirkstoff-Forschung, Mainz), New England Biolabs, Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft, and vermicon AG.

 

Poster Prizes 2026

Congratulations to all poster awardees at the VAAM Annual Conference 2026!

 

 

Name

Ort

Betreuer:in

Titel

Lena Kröninger

Düsseldorf

Eva Nowack

Angomonas deanei - A rising star in endosymbiosis research enables the dissection of molecular mechanisms underlying the host/endosymbiont interaction using advanced genetic tools

Daniel Stukenberg

Darmstadt

Torsten Waldminghaus

Mining of Vibrionaceae genomes for single-copy plasmid origins and investigation of their replication and segregation machineries

Ciaran Kelly

Köln

Bart Thomma

Comparative genomic analyses of antimicrobial proteins encoded by lichen-forming fungi

Nastassia Knödlseder

Barcelona/ ES
Aarhus / DK

Maria Jose Fabrega Fernandez

Development of Cutibacterium acnes as a Chassis for Skin-Delivered Biologics

Michael Seidel

Mainz

Susanne Gebhard

Decoding the functional role of the calcium ATPase YloB in microbially induced calcite precipitation and sporulation in Solibacillus silvestris

Chiara-Sophie Epifanio

Braunschweig

Jörg Overmann

Establishing a culture-independent workflow to assess abundance and diversity of Clostridioides difficile in the environment

Deniz Akbulut

Kiel

Panagiotis Adam

The Patchwork of Nucleoid-Associated Proteins in Archaea

Eugene Huang

Münster

Ivan Berg

Exploring the Altiarchaeal CO₂ Fixation Pathway: An Uncultivated Archaeon from the Deep Biosphere

Julia Bischof

Tübingen

Wolfgang Wohlleben

Heterologous expression of cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters from A. cruciatus 763 using Aspergillus as biotechnological production platform”

Nora Junker

Bielefeld

Volker Wendisch

Utilization of orange peel waste for sustainable amino acid production by Corynebacterium glutamicum

Désirée Ross

Kaiserslautern

Nicole Frankenberg-Dinkel

Implementation of a heterologous screening system to unravel phycocyanobilin biosynthesis in red algae

Mrinalini Srinivasan

München

Wolfgang Fischer

Functional Analysis of Putative Cargo Genes on Integrating Conjugative Elements in H. pylori

Justine Camus

Tübingen

Arnaud Kengmo Tchoupa

Staphylococci remodel lipids at the host-microbe interface

Yasmina Reißer

Jena

Stefanie Deinhardt-Emmer

Hippo-Pathway activation drives fibrogenic remodeling in Influenza A virus-infected lung fibroblasts

Ronja Fiedler

Bochum

Franz Narberhaus

Molecular Basis of Target Gene Recognition by the LysR type Transcriptional Regulator LsrB in Agrobacterium tumefaciens


The VAAM poster awards 2026 are supported by BIOspektrum, ASM, W&H Wassertechnik GmbH and Biozym Scientific GmbH.