Lab News

How can you measure something that cannot be measured directly? Think of a rate: this must always be inferred from some other measurements. In the 6th of Jan issue of Nature Metabolism the Springer lab describes a new mechanism by which cells can measure metabolic rates – in this case rates of the conversion of the

A new collaborative paper with Greg Bokinsky has just came out in Nature Communications! You find it here: paper link. When temperature changes, the kinetics of enzymes change (think of the Arrhenius law) as well as their diffusive properties (the diffusion coefficient depends linearly on temperature, at constant viscosity). The change in the diffusion coefficient

Ecem Yuksel, Remco Kort, and colleagues wrote a new review about the different bacteria in our intestines that can degrade a certain kind of dietary fiber called pectin, and how this can benefit our gut health. Check out the review here! (Picture from here) The human gastrointestinal microbiota, densely populated with a diverse array of

The new academic year kicked off on 2 September 2024 with the Opening Academic Year. This year’s theme was ‘Reasons for Hope’. Bas was interviewed as part of the panel and spoke as the Director of AIMMS about how we are committed to making a positive impact on life and the environment by accelerating breakthroughs

C2W:Mens & Molecule is a Dutch publication platform (including a magazine) for independent science journalism for chemistry and life sciences. Our current research on usage of alternative cofactors (e.g. replacing the NADH/NAD couple) in novel metabolic engineering strategies for microbial biotechnology has recently feature in this magazine. We carry out this research in collaboration with

Maaike and Pranas participated in the third summer school on Economic Principles in Cell Biology that took place on the 8-11th July, 2024, in Paris and online. Lab PhD students Francesco and Luis also attended the lectures online. Maaike was one of some 30 participants selected for in-person attendance, and Pranas gave one of the

Since cells have finite biosynthetic resources for protein synthesis, a rise in one protein concentration is generally at the expense of that of others. A logical consequence is then that phenotypic traits trade-off: cells cannot excel at everything. They cannot grow fast and be very stress tolerant and adaptive to new conditions at the same

Some time ago, we started an initiative in the lab to collect all the best (and worst) practices on how to reconstruct, curate, and simulate genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs). A total of 7 colleagues, including a visiting PhD student Gioele Lazzari from the University of Verona, and a MSc rotation student Steven Wijnen, have put

Microbiologists are searching for a universal theory of how bacteria form communities based not on their species but on the roles they play. A new article in the popular science magazine Quanta has highlighted our work on metabolic preferences and their genomic markers. How can we identify rules of microbial communities? What are the traits

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) granted the FERMI Perspective proposal led by Herwig Bachmann from the Systems Biology Lab. The project aims to accelerate the protein transition by improving the taste of plant-based products through fermentation by microbes. With colleagues from the Wageningen University and TU Delft and 10 industrial partners, the project