BIOSS member Sonja-Verena Albers elected as member of the National Academy of Sciences – Leopoldina

Sonja-Verena Albers is a professor for microbiology and Dean of the Faculty of Biology. She studies different aspects of cellular function and signalling and is a member of the steering board of BIOSS, and a member of the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS at the University of Freiburg.

Prof. Albers researches the molecular biology of archaea, a diverse group of single-celled organisms that is distinct from bacteria and eukaryotes. Albers’ work focuses on the assembly of the archaeal cell envelope, and on the regulatory and signaling networks that control it. This includes the assembly of large molecular appendages on the cell surface, such as the motility structures with which archaea navigate and sense their environment, but also smaller modifications to the cell surface, such as the addition of carbohydrate groups to molecules though a process called N-glycosylation. The unique properties of archaea require research techniques that are specific to these organisms, which is why Albers uses newly established genetic tools in combination with approaches from the fields of molecular microbiology, cell biology and biochemistry and biophysics.