In the past months, both Rabia and Anna have reinforced our team. Welcome to both!
ERC grant to study archaeal viruses

We are thrilled with the opportunity provided by the ERC starting grant that was awarded for our research on archaeal viruses. We will try to answer the question how archaeal viruses compete with each other for access to cellular resources. Thank you ERC! New job openings will follow this summer.
Lab moved to Groningen
The lab recently moved to the University of Groningen (RUG) in the Netherlands, where we found an exiting new environment for our research on archaeal viruses at the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences & Biotechnology Institute. You can find us at the Linnaeusborg at the Zernike Campus.
Zaloa started her PhD project
Zaloa Aguirre Sourrouille joined the lab as a new Phd student. She works on a PhD project funded by the Hector Fellow Academy. We are really happy to welcome Zaloa in our group!
Tessa received the Hector RCD award
The Hector RCD award was awarded to Tessa and will fund the position of a PhD student to work on archaeal mechanisms to escape viral infection. She will officially receive the award during the ceremony of the Hector Academy in July.
Paper about the host of halophilic virus HFTV1 is now published
Colin and Sabines publication on H. gibbonsii LR2-5 is now published in Frontiers in Microbiology. Check it out here
Two new papers by the lab published
Two new papers of the lab were published this week:
Schwarzer S, Rodriguez-Franco M, Oksanen H.M., Quax T.E.F. (2021) Growth phase dependent cell shape of Haloarcula. Microorganisms. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/9/2/231
And a review paper on how viruses use filamentous surface structures of bacteria and archaea was published in ‘Viruses’
Tittes C, Schwarzer S, Quax T.E.F. (2021) Viral hijack of filamentous surface structures in Archaea and Bacteria. Viruses. https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/2/164
Publication about the role of archaeal MinD now online
The joint publication with the Albers and Duggin labs on the role of archaeal MinD in motility is now officially published in Current Biology.
Paper about the archaeal switch complex now online

The recent paper from Zhengqun is now online at Molecular Microbiology. In this paper we show that ArlCDE are important to transfer signals from the chemotaxis system to the archaeal motility structure. Read more here.