Jan Michael Schuller
Group Leader, Mentor, CryoEM Maniac and Father
Jan's motivation is to understand biological CO2 fixation and to combine the obtained knowledge with synthetic biology and biotechnological methods to help combat man-made climate change.
He is writing grants, papers, sits in committees and video conferences... PI stuff. Sometimes he interferes with peoples CryoEM processing.
In his free-time he is mainly a proud father of two kids. A 4-year old little ballerina, princess and his 1-year old little car fanatic.
Anuj Kumar
PhD Student
Anuj received his BS-MS from IISER Mohali, India. His goal is to decipher the structural dynamics of protein complexes that play an important role in bioenergetic processes. To do this, he uses a comprehensive combination of techniques, including cryo-EM and molecular dynamics simulation.
Before he came to the lab, he worked at the German Electron Synchrotron Hamburg, and at the Kavli Institute Of Nanoscience at TU Delft.
When he is not in the laboratory, he likes to spend his time reading books.
Yat Kei Lo
PhD Student
Can we combat global warming by turning CO2 into fuel, fabric, plastic, or any commodity efficiently? Yat Kei is curious about how organisms capture CO2 and how we can use their amazing ability to build a green future.
After getting his MSc in LMU München, he is currently investigating mechanisms of various prokaryotic carbon concentration mechanisms (CCM) – extraordinary adaptations driving carbon fixation using structural, biochemical, and molecular techniques. He aims to translate his finding into an efficient synthetic carbon-harnessing machinery. He believes learning from the nature is the key to a sustainable future.
Tristan Reif-Trauttmansdorff
PhD student
After completing his master studies in Berlin, Tristan came to Marburg to work with a variety of strictly anaerobic microorganisms for his PhD. From the oxygen-free cultures to the implementation of native purification techniques, his ultimate goal is the isolation and analysis of molecular machines involved in energy conservation - in both acetogenic bacteria and methanogenic archaea.
Fidel Ramírez-Amador
PhD student
Fidel obtained his biotechnology background at the IPN and UNAM in Mexico. His current projects revolve mainly around the methyl coenzyme M reductase (MCR), a complex in charge of the last reaction during methanogenesis in archaea - the production of CH4. He is interested in learning more about those 'neighbors' that are responsible to keep MCR in good shape, in terms of its activation and functionality. Solving the structure of these anaerobic complexes should help unravel their activity mechanisms and interactions.
Out of the lab, Fidel is probably looking for some nature and new places to visit.
Lena Schmück
Master student
Lena is a Master student in the lab and she is about to become a PhD student. She investigates the cyanobacterial Sulfur Mobilization Machinery. This is a very interesting mechanism, which assembles and transfers Iron-Sulfur-Clusters into target proteins. She wants to learn how a metallic cluster is formed within this kind of complexes as well as understand the function of its puzzling ATPase activity.
Alumni
Josef Hoff - Master student
Complexes involved in plastid gene regulation using novel vectors for E. coli and V. natriegens.
Niniane Metzner - Master student
Study of the glutamine synthetase in T. elongatus