Lab News

Growing cells in constant conditions at a fixed exponential growth rate in a shake flask — balanced growth — is arguably the most basic experiment in microbiology. We are so used to it that we sometimes forget to realise that this is not at all so obvious. Not only the average growth rate remains fixed,

Jurgen Haanstra and Bas Teusink collaborated with several research groups on interdisciplinary research combining wetlab experiments with computational models. Haanstra and Teusink collaborated with research groups in Gothenburg (Sweden), Groningen and Heidelberg (Germany). Their work on a quantitative analysis of amino acid metabolism in liver cancer, with Jurgen as co-first author, was just published in

The winning photograph and his creator.

We recently published an article in which we reviewed the different approaches that describe a puzzling metabolic phenomenon called overflow metabolism: (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-019-03380-2). Many different organisms secrete ‘overflow products’ in conditions where they grow and reproduce fast. For example, many yeasts produce ethanol, Escherichia coli produces acetate, and cancer cells produce lactate. This behaviour seems counter-intuitive

The System Bioinformatics section has a new name and from now on will be known as: Systems Biology Lab

Systeembioinformaticus Daan de Groot met Self-organising adaptation: a universal mechanism for microbial protein expression regulation Cellen kunnen zich aanpassen aan, en groeien in, een verbluffende hoeveelheid omgevingen. Dit lijkt, gezien de eenvoud van individuele cellen, een onmogelijke prestatie. Maar hoe zit dit als een populatie cellen gaat samenwerken? De onderzoekers stellen een universeel mechanisme voor

Two papers were recently published by Chrats about microbial communities. In the first paper, the authors show how microbial communities change during wine fermentations, what are the differences in microbial composition between vineyards and which ones are the species that are present during problematic fermentations. In the second paper, which is a first-authorship for Chrats,