Understanding the metabolism of the microbiome

At the beginning of the year, the University of Jena and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI) welcome microbiologist Prof. Dr Sarela García-Santamarina to Jena. The Spaniard was appointed as a professor for Deep Microbiome Metabolomics in a joint appointment procedure between the Leibniz-HKI and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. On 7 January, University Vice President Prof. Dr Karina Weichold presented her with the certificate of appointment.

After studying chemistry in Spain, Sarela García-Santamarina moved to London, where she completed her Master's degree in Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases. Back in Spain, she completed her doctoral thesis in biomedicine and then went to Durham in the USA for a postdoctoral stay. She is also already familiar with Germany, as she spent the second postdoc phase at the renowned EMBL in Heidelberg with an EIPOD3 Marie Curie scholarship from the EU. Before moving to Jena, Sarela García-Santamarina led her own group in Portugal, where she was already working on the complex metabolism of the microbiome.

This field of research is to be expanded in future at the Leibniz-HKI with the newly founded Deep Microbiome Metabolomics department, as findings on the metabolism of new active substances are important for the success of therapy and thus for the development and subsequent admission of new drugs. Prof. García-Santamarina and her newly established team will in future focus on the question of how complex communities of microorganisms metabolise certain molecules. It is assumed that active pharmaceutical ingredients can be altered by the human gut microbiome, which influences their efficacy and can lead to individual differences in drug response behaviour. The Jena Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse"External link will also benefit from the new topic, which will be worked on together with Bioinformatics and Artificial Intelligence methods in the future.

"The international and friendly atmosphere at Leibniz-HKI and the university has inspired me from the very beginning. I am delighted to be part of this interdisciplinary research institute and to be able to pass on my enthusiasm for research to the next generation through teaching," says Prof. Dr Sarela García-Santamarina.