This image shows Beat Christen

Beat Christen

Prof. Dr.

Head of the Institute for Microbiology

Contact

+49 711 685 65487

Allmandring 31
70569 Stuttgart

Subject

The Christen Lab pioneers systems and synthetic biology approaches to understand the molecular principles of bacterial life and develop technologies to design useful microbes. We use large-scale DNA synthesis in conjunction with computational genome design to build new bacterial genomes from the ground up towards engineering novel microbes systems for tomorrow's industry, agriculture, and medicine.

  1. Christen, Beat (2021): Stressed Serratia curb CRISPR, in: Nature Microbiology, (Nature Microbiology), Jg. 6, Nr. 2, S. 149--150, doi: 10.1038/s41564-020-00848-x.
  2. van Kooten, Mariëlle J. F. M.; Scheidegger, Clio A.; Christen, Matthias; u. a. (2021): The transcriptional landscape of a rewritten bacterial genome reveals control elements and genome design principles, in: Nature Communications, (Nature Communications), Jg. 12, Nr. 1, S. 3053, doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23362-y.
  3. Medico, Luca Del; Cerletti, Dario; Schächle, Philipp; u. a. (2020): The type IV pilin PilA couples surface attachment and cell-cycle initiation in              Caulobacter crescentus, in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), Jg. 117, Nr. 17, S. 9546--9553, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1920143117.
  4. Flores-Tinoco, Carlos Eduardo; Tschan, Flavia; Fuhrer, Tobias; u. a. (2020): Co-catabolism of arginine and succinate drives symbiotic nitrogen fixation, in: Molecular Systems Biology, EMBO (Molecular Systems Biology), Jg. 16, Nr. 6, doi: 10.15252/msb.20199419.
  5. Nguyen, Bidong D.; V., Miguelangel Cuenca; Hartl, Johannes; u. a. (2020): Import of Aspartate and Malate by DcuABC Drives H2/Fumarate Respiration to Promote Initial Salmonella Gut-Lumen Colonization in Mice, in: Cell Host &amp$\mathsemicolon$ Microbe, Elsevier BV (Cell Host &amp$\mathsemicolon$ Microbe), Jg. 27, Nr. 6, S. 922--936.e6, doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.04.013.
  6. Lobsiger, Nadine; Venetz, Jonathan E.; Gregorini, Michele; u. a. (2019): YestroSens, a field-portable S. cerevisiae biosensor device for the detection of endocrine-disrupting chemicals: Reliability and stability, in: Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Elsevier BV (Biosensors and Bioelectronics), Jg. 146, S. 111710, doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2019.111710.
  7. Venetz, Jonathan E.; Medico, Luca Del; Wölfle, Alexander; u. a. (2019): Chemical synthesis rewriting of a bacterial genome to achieve design flexibility and biological functionality, in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), Jg. 116, Nr. 16, S. 8070--8079, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1818259116.
  8. Christen, Matthias; Kamischke, Cassandra; Kulasekara, Hemantha D.; u. a. (2018): Identification of Small-Molecule Modulators of Diguanylate Cyclase by FRET-Based High-Throughput Screening, in: ChemBioChem, Wiley (ChemBioChem), Jg. 20, Nr. 3, S. 394--407, doi: 10.1002/cbic.201800593.
  9. Sternon, Jean-Francois; Godessart, Pierre; de Freitas, Rosa Goncalves; u. a. (2018): Transposon sequencing of Brucella abortus uncovers essential genes for growth in vitro and inside macrophages, in: Infection and Immunity, American Society for Microbiology (Infection and Immunity), S. IAI.00312--18, doi: 10.1128/iai.00312-18.
  10. AM, Ochsner; M, Christen; L, Hemmerle; u. a. (2017): Transposon Sequencing Uncovers an Essential Regulatory Function of Phosphoribulokinase for Methylotrophy., in: Current biology : CB, (Current biology : CB), doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.025.
  11. Christen, Matthias; Medico, Luca Del; Christen, Heinz; u. a.; Ruslan Kalendar (Hrsg.) (2017): Genome Partitioner: A web tool for multi-level partitioning of large-scale DNA constructs for synthetic biology applications, in: PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS) (PLOS ONE), Jg. 12, Nr. 5, S. e0177234, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177234.
  12. Québatte, Maxime; Christen, Matthias; Harms, Alexander; u. a. (2017): Gene Transfer Agent Promotes Evolvability within the Fittest Subpopulation of a Bacterial Pathogen, in: Cell Systems, Elsevier BV (Cell Systems), Jg. 4, Nr. 6, S. 611--621.e6, doi: 10.1016/j.cels.2017.05.011.
  13. Christen, Matthias; Beusch, Christian; Bösch, Yvonne; u. a. (2016): Quantitative Selection Analysis of Bacteriophage $\upvarphi$CbK Susceptibility in Caulobacter crescentus, in: Journal of Molecular Biology, Elsevier BV (Journal of Molecular Biology), Jg. 428, Nr. 2, S. 419--430, doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2015.11.018.
  14. Christen, Matthias; Deutsch, Samuel; Christen, Beat (2015): Genome Calligrapher: A Web Tool for Refactoring Bacterial Genome Sequences for de Novo DNA Synthesis, in: ACS Synthetic Biology, American Chemical Society (ACS) (ACS Synthetic Biology), Jg. 4, Nr. 8, S. 927--934, doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.5b00087.
  15. Yung, Mimi C.; Park, Dan M.; Overton, K. Wesley; u. a.; T. J. Silhavy (Hrsg.) (2015): Transposon Mutagenesis Paired with Deep Sequencing of Caulobacter crescentus under Uranium Stress Reveals Genes Essential for Detoxification and Stress Tolerance, in: Journal of Bacteriology, American Society for Microbiology (Journal of Bacteriology), Jg. 197, Nr. 19, S. 3160--3172, doi: 10.1128/jb.00382-15.
  16. Q, Xu; B, Christen; HJ, Chiu; u. a. (2012): Structure of the pilus assembly protein TadZ from Eubacterium rectale: implications for polar localization., in: Molecular microbiology, (Molecular microbiology), doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2011.07954.x.
  17. B, Christen; E, Abeliuk; JM, Collier; u. a. (2011): The essential genome of a bacterium., in: Molecular systems biology, (Molecular systems biology), doi: 10.1038/msb.2011.58.
  18. B, Christen; MJ, Fero; NJ, Hillson; u. a. (2010): High-throughput identification of protein localization dependency networks., in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), doi: 10.1073/pnas.1000846107.
  19. M, Christen; HD, Kulasekara; B, Christen; u. a. (2010): Asymmetrical distribution of the second messenger c-di-GMP upon bacterial cell division., in: Science (New York, N.Y.), (Science (New York, N.Y.)), doi: 10.1126/science.1188658.
  20. Stephens, C.; Christen, B.; Watanabe, K.; u. a. (2007): Regulation of D-Xylose Metabolism in Caulobacter crescentus by a LacI-Type Repressor, in: Journal of Bacteriology, American Society for Microbiology (Journal of Bacteriology), Jg. 189, Nr. 24, S. 8828--8834, doi: 10.1128/jb.01342-07.
  21. Christen, M.; Christen, B.; Allan, M. G.; u. a. (2007): DgrA is a member of a new family of cyclic diguanosine monophosphate receptors and controls flagellar motor function in Caulobacter crescentus, in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), Jg. 104, Nr. 10, S. 4112--4117, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0607738104.
  22. Stephens, C.; Christen, B.; Fuchs, T.; u. a. (2006): Genetic Analysis of a Novel Pathway for D-Xylose Metabolism in Caulobacter crescentus, in: Journal of Bacteriology, American Society for Microbiology (Journal of Bacteriology), Jg. 189, Nr. 5, S. 2181--2185, doi: 10.1128/jb.01438-06.
  23. Christen, Beat; Christen, Matthias; Paul, Ralf; u. a. (2006): Allosteric Control of Cyclic di-GMP Signaling, in: Journal of Biological Chemistry, American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB) (Journal of Biological Chemistry), Jg. 281, Nr. 42, S. 32015--32024, doi: 10.1074/jbc.m603589200.
  24. Christen, Matthias; Christen, Beat; Folcher, Marc; u. a. (2005): Identification and Characterization of a Cyclic di-GMP-specific Phosphodiesterase and Its Allosteric Control by GTP, in: Journal of Biological Chemistry, American Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (ASBMB) (Journal of Biological Chemistry), Jg. 280, Nr. 35, S. 30829--30837, doi: 10.1074/jbc.m504429200.

Beat Christen (born 1979) is a Full Professor and the director of the Institute of Microbiology at the University of Stuttgart in Germany. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland. Following his doctoral studies, he conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University, USA, before joining ETH Zurich, Switzerland as an assistant professor. In 2023, he was appointed Full Professor of Microbiology at the University of Stuttgart, where he leads the Institute for Microbiology. His research endeavors focus on the innovative engineering of useful microbes through whole-genome synthesis. He has gained international recognition for his pioneering work in the field of synthetic genomics and is a co-founder of Gigabases Switzerland AG, a spin-off focusing on digital biology.

To the top of the page