PhD in molecular bacteriology

The lab of Jan Michiels is embedded within the KU Leuven (University of Leuven) Centre of Microbial and Plant genetics and within the VIB (Flemish Institute for Biotechnology) Center for Microbiology. The group studies bacterial survival under various stressful conditions. The lab currently consists of ~20 junior lab researchers and is looking for a dynamic and highly motivated PhD student to develop a project studying the role of protein aggregation in bacterial dormancy.

Project

The global antibiotic resistance crisis threatens modern medicine, with bacterial persister cells playing a key role in antibiotic therapy failure and resistance development. Persisters enter a dormant state, often linked to protein aggregation, which depletes key proteins and leads to dormancy. Our previous research has shown that a conserved GTPase is implicated in this process, as it accelerates protein condensate formation and may act as a scaffold for protein agg...

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