Doctoral student’s Day 2024 and award for Alexander Kaier
On February 21st, 2024, we celebrated the first Doctoral student’s Day within the department of Biology. Many students and employees of the department attended this event to hear about the research conducted by senior PhD candidates from different chairs at the department.
The keynote speaker of the day, Prof. Dr. Pierre Stallforth from the Hans-Knöll-Institut in Jena, presented the work of his research group. They work on the discovery of natural products using genomes from recent and extinct microorganisms, as well as the interaction of different bacterial species in predator deterrence.
Additionally, Alexander Kaier from the Biochemistry Chair was awarded the prize for the best presentation, which was accompanied by a 250 Euro bonus. His talk about the genetic foundations of heat tolerance in potato illuminated the importance of cooperations between wet-lab approaches and bioinformatic analyses in this complex crop plant in order to ensure food supply in times of global climate change.
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