Revolution in biotechnology: Marburg biologist receives innovation prize!

Revolution in biotechnology: Marburg biologist receives innovation prize!

On March 27, 2025, Dr. Daniel Stukenberg, a biologist from the University of Marburg, was awarded the 2025 doctoral award during the annual meeting of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) in Bochum. The event, which took place from March 23 to 26, celebrated outstanding achievements in microbiology and included around 3,300 members from science and industry among its participants. Stukenberg received the award for his important research on the bacteriumVibrio natriegens, which impressively completes its cell division in less than ten minutes.

Vibrio natriegenshas established itself as a promising candidate in biotechnological research as it has a remarkable growth rate and could potentially significantly accelerate production processes in this industry. Dr. Stukenberg has been active since 2018V. natriegensand was part of a student team at the University of Marburg that successfully took part in the international iGEM competition. Under his leadership, the team achieved an impressive victory in Boston against approximately 350 competitors.

Research on Vibrio natriegens

During his doctoral period, which he spent in the working group of Prof. Dr. Anke Becker at the Center for Synthetic Microbiology (Synmicro) at the University of Marburg, Stukenberg developed various genetic tools to improve the applications ofV. natriegens. The organism has the greatest potential as an alternative chassis organismEscherichia coli, which could advance the development of new biological applications in synthetic biology. The methods he published offer researchers the opportunity to use the properties ofV. natriegensto develop tailor-made solutions.

The research tooV. natriegensencompasses numerous aspects, including the identification of research gaps and the further development of molecular biology tools. An overview of current literature onV. natriegenshighlights its extraordinary properties and the organization of its genome. The focus is on the various metabolic pathways and the investigation of interactions with other organisms in its natural ecological niche.

New developments and perspectives

Work on the bacterium has also recently taken a technological leap. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology and the Philipps University of Marburg have developed a new variant ofV. natriegensdeveloped, which also has the highest known division rate among bacteria. They investigated whether the division of chromosomes is responsible for the rapid growth of the bacterium. As part of this study, it turned out that the fusion of chromosomes in related strains such asVibrio choleraeled to an extended doubling time.

The team developed a new strain ofV. natriegenswith only one chromosome that has similar division rates to the natural strain. This suggests that a shared genome is not crucial for rapid growth. The new strain could function as a model organism in basic research on chromosome biology and for biotechnological applications. Also requiresVibrio natriegenscultivation in salt water, which opens up the possibility of using sea water as a nutrient medium and thus conserving precious fresh water resources.

In summary, the research toVibrio natriegensis of utmost importance both in terms of its biological properties and its potential applications in biotechnology. Research work by Dr. In the future, Stukenberg and other scientists could contribute significantly to the further development of these dazzling organisms and their use in synthetic biology, which could ultimately have profound implications for the industry.

Dr. Stukenberg's contribution to researchVibrio natriegensis supported by the institutions, which are also presented in a comprehensive literature review on this bacterium. According to a review by Hoff et al., this publication is one of the key papers in the field of microbial research ( pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ).

As reported by the Philipps University of Marburg, the speed of growth ofVibrio natriegensnot only represents an advantage for biotechnological processes, but could also lead to groundbreaking discoveries in microbiology itself ( uni-marburg.de ). The context of the research is also expanded by the findings of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, which documents the development of new strains and their possible applications ( mpg.de ).