Three MBL students finished their theses

Three of MBL undergraduate students finished their theses this spring:

Miro Rosputinský did a great job compiling a core metabolic model for our new favorite bug, Caldimonas thermodepolymerans (thanks to David Šafránek from FI MUNI for co-supervision!). Thanks to this model, we now know that the metabolism of this thermophilic bacterium, which has high application potential, has many peculiarities compared to our other favorites, E. coli and P. putida. We have much work ahead of us to explore these peculiarities.

Kristýna Lipovská, with tremendous support from Nastya Ieremenko, deciphered fundamental components of a new CRISPR/Cas9 system for Caldimonas. This work is absolutely essential for developing the first thermostable genome editing tool for surgical cuts in this species.

Denis Pšenka, co-supervised by Matúš Pešta, studied the differences among three chassis strains of P. putida with reduced genomes in his diploma thesis and showed that the benefits of the chassis are often application- and environment-specific and cannot be generalized.

We are proud of the progress these three folks have made in the last couple of years, and I wish them all the best in the next steps of their careers!