Chair of Microbiology

Research

In the focus of research at the Chair of Microbiology are pathogenicity mechanisms of different microorganisms such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Bordetella pertussis and Staphylococcus aureus.

Host-pathogen interactions, pathogen-induced host cell apoptosis, the interface of infection and cancer as well as systems biology of antibiotic action are of peticular interest.

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News

Marcel Rühling received the Pathogenicity Section's
doctoral award at the joint DGHM and VAAM "Fachgruppentreffen"
on July 2, 2025 in Hamminkeln.

Congratulations Marcel!

Gianluca Prezza will be awarded with the PhD prize by the Friends of HZI (Förderverein des HZI) for his PhD thesis in the Westermann group.

Alexander Westermann will receive the "Supervisor of the year Award" 2025 from the GSLS.

Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Würzburg (HIRI) and the Chair of Microbiology of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) have now characterized the functional differences between various forms of the gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.
(More information)

Rüttiger et al., Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):208. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-55383-8.

Rühling et al., Nat Commun. 2024; 15, 7456 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51874-w

Hovhannisyan et al., PLoS Pathog. 2024 20(8):e1012144. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.

Kumar et al., Nat Commun. 2024 Apr 9;15(1):3064. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47173-z.

Brenzinger et al., Nat Microbiol. 2024 Jan;9(1):251-262. doi: 10.1038/s41564-023-01556-y.

Klünemann et al., Nature. 2021 Sept. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03891-8
Chumduri et al., Nat Cell Biol. 2021 Feb;23(2):184-197. doi: 10.1038/s41556-020-00619-0.

Rajeeve et al., Nat Microbiol. 2018 Jul;3(7):824-835. doi: 10.1038/s41564-018-0182-y.
Rajeeve et al., Nat Microbiol. 2020 Aug 3. doi: 10.1038/s41564-020-0762-5.

Chair of Microbiology

Research

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Team

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New Chemical Tool Developed for Infection Research

Chlamydia Can Settle in the Intestine

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