Sonja-Verena Albers

Sonja-Verena Albers
Alma materUniversity of Groningen
University of Würzburg
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Groningen
University of Freiburg
ThesisSugar transport in the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus (2001)

Sonja-Verena Albers is a German microbiologist who is a professor at the University of Freiburg. Her research focuses on the cell biology of the archaea Sulfolobus acidocaldarius and Haloferax volcanii. She was elected Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology in 2023.

Early life and education

Albers attended high school in Hamburg.[1] She studied biology at the University of Würzburg, during which time she completed an internship at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and became interested in Archaea.[1] In Munich, she met a researcher from the Netherlands who studied Archaea, and their research interested her so much she moved to the University of Groningen. She completed her doctoral research in molecular microbiology at the University of Groningen, where she studied sugar transport in Sulfolobus solfataricus.[1] After graduating she was made a Dutch Research Council postdoctoral researcher.[citation needed]

Research and career

In 2006, Albers was awarded a Dutch Research Council VIDI grant to establish her own group at the University of Groningen.[citation needed] She moved to the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in 2008, where her research interests moved to understanding the archaea cell envelope.[2] In 2014 she was made a professor of microbiology at the University of Freiburg.[citation needed]

Albers has investigated the structure-property relationships of archaea[3] and the molecular mechanisms that underpin the transmission of environmental cues to its motility structure.[4] Archaea, one of the three domains of life, are single-cell life forms without a nucleus.[5] They adapt to extreme living conditions (e.g. hot sulphur springs, salty lakes), are found in a variety of environments around the world.[5] Albers' research uncovered the structure of proteins used by archaea to decide which direction to swim.[5][6] She has studied fossils of archaea, which provide evidence of at least 3.5 billion years of life on Earth.[7]

Albers used cryogenic electron microscopy to unravel the structure of archaea thread.[8] Her work showed that the subunits of threads are interconnected via donor strand complementation, they have evolved differently from one another.[8]

Awards and honours

Selected publications

  • Sonja-Verena Albers; Benjamin H Meyer (1 June 2011). "The archaeal cell envelope". Nature Reviews Microbiology. 9 (6): 414–426. doi:10.1038/NRMICRO2576. ISSN 1740-1534. PMID 21572458. Wikidata Q34185088.
  • Jing Zhang; Christophe Rouillon; Melina Kerou; et al. (10 February 2012). "Structure and Mechanism of the CMR Complex for CRISPR-Mediated Antiviral Immunity". Molecular Cell. 45 (3): 303–13. doi:10.1016/J.MOLCEL.2011.12.013. ISSN 1097-2765. PMC 3381847. PMID 22227115. Wikidata Q27676627.
  • John A Leigh; Sonja-Verena Albers; Haruyuki Atomi; Thorsten Allers (7 March 2011). "Model organisms for genetics in the domain Archaea: methanogens, halophiles, Thermococcales and Sulfolobales". FEMS Microbiology Reviews. 35 (4): 577–608. doi:10.1111/J.1574-6976.2011.00265.X. ISSN 0168-6445. PMID 21265868. Wikidata Q37832278.

References

  1. ^ a b c Zeitung, Badische (2020-02-17). ""Enormes Interesse und Geduld"". Badische Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  2. ^ "Snapshot: Dr. Sonja-Verena Albers". Nature Portfolio Microbiology Community. 2017-11-01. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  3. ^ van Wolferen, Marleen; Albers, Sonja-Verena (2022). "Progress and Challenges in Archaeal Cell Biology". Archaea. Methods in Molecular Biology. Vol. 2522. pp. 365–371. doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-2445-6_24. ISBN 978-1-0716-2444-9. ISSN 1940-6029. PMID 36125763.
  4. ^ Albers, Sonja-Verena; Koning, Sonja M.; Konings, Wil N.; Driessen, Arnold J. M. (2004-02-01). "Insights into ABC Transport in Archaea". Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes. 36 (1): 5–15. doi:10.1023/B:JOBB.0000019593.84933.e6. ISSN 1573-6881. PMID 15168605. S2CID 22153516.
  5. ^ a b c Freiburg, Albert Ludwigs University of. "How single-cell archaea determine what direction to swim". phys.org. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  6. ^ Quax, Tessa E. F.; Altegoer, Florian; Rossi, Fernando; Li, Zhengqun; Rodriguez-Franco, Marta; Kraus, Florian; Bange, Gert; Albers, Sonja-Verena (2018-02-06). "Structure and function of the archaeal response regulator CheY". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (6): E1259 – E1268. Bibcode:2018PNAS..115E1259Q. doi:10.1073/pnas.1716661115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5819425. PMID 29358409.
  7. ^ "Une vie motile dès 3.4 milliards d'années ?". www.insu.cnrs.fr (in French). 6 April 2021. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  8. ^ a b Gaines, Matthew C.; Isupov, Michail N.; Sivabalasarma, Shamphavi; Haque, Risat Ul; McLaren, Mathew; Mollat, Clara L.; Tripp, Patrick; Neuhaus, Alexander; Gold, Vicki A. M.; Albers, Sonja-Verena; Daum, Bertram (2022-12-01). "Electron cryo-microscopy reveals the structure of the archaeal thread filament". Nature Communications. 13 (1): 7411. Bibcode:2022NatCo..13.7411G. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34652-4. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 9715654. PMID 36456543.
  9. ^ "Find people in the EMBO Communities". people.embo.org. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  10. ^ "SPP 1879 PI Sonja-Verena Albers has been elected as EMBO member | Nucleotide Second Messenger Signaling in Bacteria". www.spp1879.de. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  11. ^ "65 Fellows Elected into the American Academy of Microbiology". ASM.org. Retrieved 2023-02-17.