An enzyme makes mushrooms “magical”

New study sheds light on the structure and evolution of an enzyme in psychoactive fungi

17-Apr-2024 - An international research team has investigated the biosynthesis of psilocybin, the main ingredient of hallucinogenic mushrooms. They gained new insights into the structure and reaction mechanism of the enzyme PsiM. It plays a key role in the production of psilocybin. The results of the study ...

An intestinal chip model takes research of fungal infections to a new level

Successful cooperation between science, clinic and start-up

25-Mar-2024 - The Jena-based biotech company Dynamic42 has developed an intestine-on-chip candidiasis model that allows for the quantification of the infection process. By combining microbiological and image-based analyses, the pathogen-host interactions can be analyzed much more precisely than is possible ...

Learning from Nature: How a fungus makes a hard job easier

Researchers analyze a fungal biosynthetic pathway and discover a capable enzyme

26-Jan-2024 - The investigation of the biosynthesis of panepoxydone, an important substance for biomedical research, in basidiomycetes has revealed a new enzyme as an important catalyst. The results of the researchers from the Leibniz-HKI, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Cluster of Excellence ...

Learning from Nature: How a fungus makes a hard job easier

Researchers analyze a fungal biosynthetic pathway and discover a capable enzyme

19-Dec-2023 - The investigation of the biosynthesis of panepoxydone, an important substance for biomedical research, in basidiomycetes has revealed a new enzyme as an important catalyst. The results of the researchers from the Leibniz-HKI, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Cluster of Excellence ...

A fungus gets comfortable

14-Aug-2023 - Aspergillus fumigatus strains that infect humans have a significantly altered metabolism compared to other strains in the environment. At the same time, infection with the fungus leads to an apparent change in the human lung microbiome. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product ...

New robotics platform for accelerated antibiotic development

Leibniz-HKI and Analytik Jena develop facility for automated testing of drug candidates

19-Jun-2023 - A new robotics platform was inaugurated at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) on Thursday, June 15, 2023, in the presence of Thuringia's State Secretary for Research, Innovation and Economic Development. The highly modular facility serves the ...

Microbes powered by electricity

How bacteria use electricity and carbon dioxide to produce useful chemicals

02-Jun-2023 - In microbial electrosynthesis, microorganisms use CO2 and electricity to produce alcohol, for example. How this process works biologically, however, has only been speculated about until now. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) have ...

Scientists “revive” Stone Age molecules

In a highly transdisciplinary study, scientists are rebuilding microbial natural products up to 100,000 years old

08-May-2023 - Breakthroughs in ancient genome reconstruction and biotechnology are now revealing the rich molecular secrets of Paleolithic microorganisms. In a new study published in Science, a transdisciplinary team of researchers led by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection ...

Fungal spores hijack lung cells

New target against Aspergillus fumigatus discovered

14-Mar-2023 - The pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus escapes elimination from surface cells of the human lung by binding to a human protein. In doing so, it is able to nest in so called phagosomes, confined areas in the lung cells, and thus prevents cell processes that would kill the fungus from being set ...

Scientific image analysis for everyone

New software enables automated analysis of image data without programming knowledge

01-Feb-2023 - The software JIPipe was developed by scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) and significantly simplifies the analysis of images generated in research. Users can create flowcharts according to their application needs and thus perform ...